Közép-európai EP-képviselők karrierútjai.
Career Paths of Central European MEPs

Political Experience and Career Ambitions in the European Parliament

Summary/Abstract: The article investigates the career paths of Central European Members of the European Parliament. Based on the analysis of biographies and the results of a quantitative survey research about career ambitions with MEPs from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the paper both outlines the career paths that lead to the European Parliament and the perspectives for a career after the EP mandate. The research proves that the Central European MEPs are more strongly linked to national politics than the MEPs of the EU-15, and they are even more embedded in their country of origin than the MEPs of the fi rst directly elected EP were in 1979. However, local politics is a much less frequent recruitment base for future MEPs in Central Europe than in the ”old Member States”. The political experience and career ambitions of Central European MEPs prove the popular myth wrong, according to which the European Parliament is essentially a retirement home for politicians who have no future political goals. The development of a supranational elite has started in all fi ve countries between 2004 and 2014. The majority of Central European MEPs plan further career steps at European or national level, and only approximately one third of them can be considered as ”European pensioners”.

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