A Representative European Parliament? Members of European Parliamentary Party Groups and the Representation of Citizens' Preferences

Abstract The link between citizens' and representatives' preferences is central to representative democracy. Research on representation of citizens' preferences in the European Parliament (EP) has primarily concentrated on national political parties and candidates. We ask how well transnational EP party groups and members of the EP (MEPs) represent their voters on the left–right and EU‐integration dimensions. We use data from four waves of the European Election Studies and surveys of MEPs. We show that MEPs in centrist parties tend to be closer to their voters on the left–right dimension than others, with EU positions making little difference to this. Our findings indicate the median voter tends to be more Eurosceptic than the median MEP across most centrist party groups whilst the opposite is true for the most Eurosceptic groups. These results have important implications for the study of representation and democracy in the EU.