Regional Representation in the European Parliament: Parliamentary Questions on Geographical Indications

Martijn Huysmans; Niels Gheyle

doi:10.1111/ecpo.12337

Regional Representation in the European Parliament: Parliamentary Questions on Geographical Indications

Martijn Huysmans^*, Niels Gheyle

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The European Parliament represents the citizens of the European Union. However, individual Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) also face incentives to represent more narrow regional economic interests. Geographical Indications (GIs) such as Asiago or Champagne are an ideal policy area to study regional representation. Their defined regions provide clear incentives and a reliable measurement of regional representation. This article codes and analyses the written questions on GIs posed by MEPs during the period 2009–2019. Descriptively, we find that MEPs often mention products from their region. We also find that MEPs focus their questions on contentious products and on politicized free trade agreements. Contributing to the debate on representation in the European Parliament, we find evidence for more regional representation by MEPs from countries with regional lists for EP elections. We conclude with the implications of our research for representation in the European Union and the idea of transnational lists.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	724-734
Number of pages	11
Journal	Economics and Politics
Volume	37
Issue number	2
Early online date	13 Feb 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12337
Publication status	Published - Jul 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Economics & Politics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Funding

The authors wish to thank the editor, anonymous reviewers, Bob Rijkers, Gianmarco Daniele, Gero Laurenz H\u00F6hn, Miriam Sorace, and seminar participants at KU Leuven LICOS, Roma3 economics, LUISS political science, the Annual Political science workshop of the Low countries 2023, and EPSA 2023 for their comments on this project. Niels Gheyle acknowledges funding by the Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS.

Funders	Funder number
KU Leuven
Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS

Keywords

European Parliament
geographical indications
parliamentary questions
regional representation
trade agreements

Access to Document

10.1111/ecpo.12337Licence: CC BY

Economics Politics - 2025 - Huysmans - Regional Representation in the European Parliament Parliamentary Questions onFinal published version, 374 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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Regional Representation in the European Parliament: Parliamentary Questions on Geographical Indications

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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