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EU Parliaments and Summer Recesses: A Lose-Lose Situation
A common complaint at this time of the year is that politicians get too much time off. Across Europe, national parliaments shut down for the summer period, for anything up to 3 months.
What are the consequences of national parliaments not sitting in the summer?
On a continent-wide scale it is noticeable that parliaments take long breaks during the summer month with the European Parliament closing down in Brussels and Strasbourg between 19 July and 30 August.
Politicians across Europe enjoy long summer holidays. A particularly galling example is Ireland. Ireland’s, parliament, the Dáil, shuts its doors for three months over the summer. This year the Dáil will not reopen until the 29 September. In the context of the severe economic situation the country finds itself, the extended holidays do politicians’ reputations no favours.
Already the Dáil has one of the shortest working weeks in Europe at an average 93 working days a year, and a three day working week. When you compare this to Ireland’s nearest neighbour, the United Kingdom whose parliament sits for 165 days on average, the comparison is not flattering. In the UK, summer recess this year will last from 27 July until 6 September.
The manner in which the parliamentary summer recess is portrayed in the media is critical and implies that Europe’s politicians do little work over the summer and are free to go where they please. This, in general, is not the case. While national parliaments may not sit over the summer months, there is work undertaken by parliamentary committees.
Furthermore, those elected to national politics are representatives of constituencies and regions. In the summer months they say they are concentrating on delivering for those who have the power to elect them. That being said, the merits of politicians taking extended holidays away from the business of running the country during the turmoil of the world economic crisis warrants examination.
That brings us to the nature of the holiday itself. The holiday destination of choice of politicians has always been of interest to citizens and the media. However, in the current climate of economic difficulty, politicians’ holiday choices are scrutinised to an even greater degree.
Interestingly, this year, almost all of the EU’s leaders seem to have rejected the idea of going abroad for their holidays in favour of holidaying at home. Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi will remain in Spain and Italy for the duration of their holidays, while David Cameron will holiday in Cornwall in the South-West of England.
Europe’s politicians are sensitive to the fact that if they were to jet off to tropical, distant shores, the symbolism of this would not be lost on the electorate. In recessionary times, politicians are keen to show their solidarity with the citizens of their nations by making conservative, moderate choices when it comes to holiday destinations.
Not only are politicians keen to stress that they are not automatically on holidays once parliamentary recess has begun, they are also eager to avoid making extravagant choices when it comes to holiday destinations which would alienate them from the electorate. The media may not give them much credit for it, but to beleaguered politicians attempting to secure re-election, optics matter.
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