The vote on activation of article 7 against Hungary in the European Parliament: voting trends and explanatory factors

Date

2019

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Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

Hungary is the first country that Article 7 has been used against, since it went into effect in 2003. This thesis has the goal to contribute to the understanding of MEPs’ voting behaviour, when it comes to politically sensitive and divisive votes such as the one on Article 7. The analysis aims to highlight the main factors behind the voting dynamics on Article 7 in the European Parliament. Voting trends are looked at in regards of activating Article 7 assess what role MEPs party affiliation and national background has played. The conceptional chapter of the thesis will give overview of the developments in Hungary, the function of Article 7 and lastly the Sargentini report will be discussed. Furthermore, MEPs voting behaviours and what can affect party group cohesion will be discussed. Second part of the thesis is the empirical part, where the analysis will be conducted. The thesis concludes that on sensitive topics such as this one, MEPs tend to vote in line with their national party affiliation which is some cases is the same to political group affiliation.

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