Resumen de Professionalised or not? An analysis of career patterns in the European parliament (1979–2019)

Paolo Marzi, Luca Verzichelli

• Due to the high levels of turnover displayed by its political personnel, theEuropean parliament has been traditionally regarded as a relatively unstableinstitution. However, recent literature seems to hint at a re-evaluation of theEP as an increasingly desirable arena for long-term commitments. In thisstudy we aim at confirming the effective degree of this process by observingthe career patterns of every Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from1979 to 2019. Relying on a stacked data matrix counting each representativeterm of each MEP as a single observation, we employ a negative binomialregression to ascertain that MEPs’ time in the EP significantly increased overthe decades. This new evidence signals the effective consolidation of aproper supranational parliamentary elite and could prompt researchers tofurther inquire about the extent of the EP’s professionalisation.