Diffusing Democracy in Europe: The European Parliament and European Community Enlargement Policy 1974-79

Abstract

The article explores the role of the European Parliament (EP) in European Community (EC) Southern enlargement policy during the phase of democratic transitions in Greece, Portugal and Spain. It demonstrates how the EP insisted on adherence to core democratic principles as a condition for any accession negotiations, in particular the holding of free and fair parliamentary elections. Furthermore, the article shows how the EP made strategic use of the Southern European democratic transitions to demand the democratisation of the EC and the EP itself, with the holding of direct elections to the EP as its primary demand. Moreover, it discusses the EP’s attempt to make the observance of democratic principles a formal requirement of EC membership, both for applicant countries and for existing member states. Finally, it reconstructs the EP’s relations with counterparts in Greece, Portugal and Spain, which were intended to prepare the baselines of enlargement policy and EC accession.