The event was organised by the Policy Unit along with colleagues Professor Dominic Wring and Dr Nathan Richie, in conjunction with a forthcoming new book they have edited, Europe Votes: Party Campaigning in EEC/EU Parliamentary Elections 1979-2019.  

They were delighted to be joined by Baroness Joyce Quin, a former MEP, MP and Europe Minister – who also kindly provided a foreword to the book – and Alyn Smith, a former MEP and current MP to share their experiences of campaigning for elections to Brussels and Strasbourg, as well as reflections on their time sitting in the European Parliament, particularly with a retrospective viewpoint now the UK has left the European Union.

It was chaired by Professor Wring and also involved a contribution from Professor Edoardo Novelli of the University of Roma Tre and Director of the European Elections Monitoring Center (EEMC), before opening out into a wider discussion. 

The book provides a retrospective evaluation of how European election campaigns have evolved in nine member states over the forty years since the public first elected their Members of the Brussels/Strasbourg Parliament.

Following the event, Professor Dominic Wring, who is Professor of Political Communication at the CRCC, said: “I was delighted to host an expert panel in Parliament to take a retrospective look at how EU Election campaigns have evolved since they were first held in 1979. Guest speakers Baroness Joyce Quin and MP Alyn Smith drew on their experiences as former Members of the European Parliament who contested the inaugural and most recent elections respectively.

“The event formed part of an EU-funded EEMC project devoted to creating the first-ever continental-wide archive of political advertising covering all 28 member states. To date nearly 15,000 items have been made available through the Center's website. As the EEMC’s UK representatives Nathan Ritchie and I are in the process of finalising Europe Votes, an edited volume featuring chapters analysing developments in nine EU countries.”