Parliaments of the European Union by nai010

Parliaments of the European Union Nico Bick

nai010 publishers

Contents

The Semi-circle of Democracy Joris Luyendijk

Parliaments— Sanctuaries of Democracy Ulrike Guérot

Where the Viewer Becomes a Participant Frits Gierstberg

Parliaments Austria Nationalrat of the European Union Belgium Chambre des représentants/ Kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers Nico Bick Bulgaria Hapoднo cъбpaниe Croatia Hrvatski sabor Cyprus Boυλή των Aντιπρoσώπων Czech Republic Poslanecká sněmovna Denmark Folketinget Estonia Riigikogu European Union European Parliament, Brussels European Union European Parliament, Strasbourg Finland Eduskunta France Assemblée nationale Germany Deutscher Bundestag Greece Boυλή των Eλλήνων Hungary Országgyűlés Ireland Dáil Éireann Italy Camera dei deputati Latvia Saeima Lithuania Seimas Luxembourg Chambre des Députés Malta Kamra tad-Deputati The Netherlands Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal Poland Sejm Portugal Assembleia da República Romania Camera Deputaţilor Slovakia Národná rada Slovenia Državni zbor Spain Congreso de los Diputados Sweden Sveriges Riksdag United Kingdom House of Commons

257

Atlas of Parliaments of the European Union Ingrid Oosterheerd

270 271

Biographies Colophon

The Semi-circle of Democracy Joris Luyendijk

Look at this collection of photographs; then ask yourself: What would an extra-terrestrial creature see? The alien has come to our little planet to study its dominant species and decided to choose for its investigation one of the biggest and most diverse economies on Earth. It quickly learns that something called the European Union, located in the far western corner of the Eurasian landmass, with around seven percent of the world’s population and representing one quarter of the world’s economy, will do for now. The alien finds a member of this European tribe and says exactly what one would expect an alien to say: Take me to your leader. It just so happens that the alien has run into an exceptionally well-educated member of the human race and she takes him to her country’s parliament, because she knows that this is where sovereignty, in other words the highest power in the land, resides. As she explains to the alien, dictatorships have weak institutions and strong leaders; with democracies, it is the other way around. Democracies do have leaders, but citizens make sure they never get too strong. They do this by leaving ultimate power in the hands of a group of people called ‘parliamentarians’. The alien nods and is very interested to hear that in the European Union alone there are twenty-eight national parliaments of this kind. There is also an overarching parliament for the whole of the EU. Actually, make that two, as the European Parliament has one house in Brussels and another in Strasbourg. No, the alien is told, human beings do not yet have teleporting, so the 751 members of the European Parliament and their staff have to make endless trips between the two buildings by train. The alien makes a few notes, placing a rather large question mark next to the word ‘rational’. It is then told that there are even more parliaments like this, though usually much smaller. The European Union consists of literally hundreds of regions, provinces, districts, Länder, all of them with their own parliaments. In some countries, the Netherlands among them, the regional or provincial parliaments send delegates to, you guessed it, yet another national parliament, usually called something like ‘the Senate’. In Britain, however, the members of the House of Lords are appointed— except for 92 hereditary peers, who are elected among themselves. The alien’s guide kindly adds that most hereditary peerages for the House of Lord can only be inherited by men, and yes, Britain is the country that prides itself as the world’s inventor of parliamentary democracy. By now, our alien is beginning to suffer from information overload, but its human guide is on a roll, telling him that this is not all. There are also parliaments for cities, while big cities even have parliaments for local boroughs. So a European national, concludes the alien, is represented on the local, the regional and the national levels as well as on the European level. Those Europeans must feel extremely fortunate! At which point its human guide says: Well, do you have a minute? Look again at this collection of photographs, and now ask yourself what the Habsburg idealist Aurel Popovici would have made of them. In 1906, Popovici published a book called Die Vereinigten Staaten von Groß-Österreich (The United States of Greater Austria). In it, he meticulously outlined a blueprint for

Parliaments—Sanctuaries of Democracy Ulrike Guérot

It is rather unusual to be asked to write an essay about the parliaments to be found in the European Union for a book of photographs of those parliaments. Not only are words always lacking in comparison to images when it comes to capturing the attention or stirring the emotions of the reader, but they never can be as expressive as photographs. Thus the risk of this essay falling short is high. All these parliaments… The first thought that comes to mind while leafing through the book is that there are so many parliaments in Europe! What do they all do? Do they communicate with each other? Do they actually know each other? Do they vote rather similarly or very differently? Are they mutually interested in each other’s work? Or are they just equally bored by having a European Parliament that side-lines them, bothering them with dry and unsexy directives and regulations that they all have to rubberstamp? And this doesn’t even include the regional or local chambers. Look and style Looking at photographs of European parliaments is like looking at European history, perhaps even Western political thought. It was the British who in the 17th century invented modern parliamentary representative democracy with its universal rules. The United Kingdom’s Parliament in the Palace of Westminster, with its exquisite old wooden intarsia, tells the story of three hundred years of parliamentary meetings, where to this day applauding is not allowed, but rather a specific form of moaning which sounds strange to non-British ears. Poland’s Sejm, another of the more famous parliaments in Europe, is the survivor of various extinctions of the Polish state and shiftings of its border. Respospolita has always had a forum, although one might argue that the real Polish parliament, in the sense of the sovereign people, formed around Lech Wałęsa in 1979 at Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. France’s l’Assemblée nationale, on the other hand, despite the prestigious look of its building flanking the river Seine, is in fact rather harmless, and until recently was entirely dependent on the Elysée Palace. It also took nearly a hundred years before the signs for the old ‘Chambre des députés’ metro station were finally changed to ‘Assemblée nationale’. The French parliament tends to be overlooked and has developed quite a bit of inertia, including its second chamber, the Senate, which in style and tempo is perhaps the most retrograde chamber of them all in Europe—very distinguished, and in essence more aristocratic than democratic; perhaps only outdone by the Italian chambers, which are reminiscent of the Medici architecture in their look and style. Are pompous parliamentary buildings reconcilable with the egalitarian claim of parliamentary democracy? Why, out of all of them, was it the parliament of the former German Democratic Republic that needed a ‘palace’? Do parliamentary buildings need to satisfy an intrinsic desire for grandeur in a nation’s citizens because a parliament, after all, represents themselves? And how, then, do modern Germans feel about being represented in the former Reichstag building, which as a symbol of its mutation to the Bundestag was given a glass roof so as to finally make German democracy transparent, ethereal and lofty

Where the Viewer Becomes a Participant Frits Gierstberg

In Wikipedia, the digital network of knowledge that is as financially destitute as it is democratic, the search for the origins of the phenomenon called ‘parliament’ leads us from ancient Greece—‘the cradle of democracy’– to the Sicilian parliament of the 11th century, to the Cortes of León of the 12th century and finally to the ‘mother of parliaments’, the three-tier system based on the ideas of the French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu that exists today in Britain. The word ‘parliament’ derives from the Anglo-Latin parliamentum, ‘to speak, chat or debate’, which in turn is derived from the Old French parlement, ‘a speaking, conference’, from parler, ‘to speak’. ‘Parley’ means to ‘confer, negotiate’ (about peace) or to ‘take part in a discussion’. By extension, a ‘parliament’ is also a ‘lively discussion’ or a ‘tumultuous exchange’, which brings to mind the assembled British House of Commons. Hear! Hear! The parliament as a locale or space is where the people’s representatives, the members of parliament, gather. Functionally and symbolically, it is the most important locale in a democracy. Since 1 July 2013, with the entrance of Croatia, the European Union has 30 such locales, including 28 national and the two houses of the European Parliament (one in Brussels, one in Strasburg). In addition to the members of parliament, the members of the incumbent government have a seat in the plenary assembly space. The members of parliament have the task of controlling the government: this is where they call the cabinet members to account. They comprise a limited number of individuals to whom millions of others have given their trust and allocated power for a certain period of time. With this delegation of authority, a number of obvious problems which otherwise would quickly crop up are immediately solved: people no longer have to get together and spend all day discussing this or that, but can make themselves useful in other areas; the group of representatives is small enough to exchange standpoints and come to considered conclusions. Letting the most voices prevail, after all, doesn’t always lead to the best solution. And because the members of this group continually have to work together, the necessity for understanding and respecting one another’s views will be self-explanatory. There is no ‘right of the strongest’ here, but civilisation; no monkeying around with facts, but the iron rule of the solid argument. Starting with the relatively simple principle of equal representation, each country has developed different structures, regulations, practices, deliberative bodies and formalities that are not always equally transparent but do conform to one firm principal: power is in the hands of the people. The architecture of a parliamentary space does not need to meet many requirements. It must be open and well lit, so that people can see each other. For each member of parliament, a seat and a means for casting votes must be furnished. It must be possible to hear the speakers. There is a layout, but no hierarchy—except for the position of the Chair, who stands above the parties and oversees the hall from a certain elevation. The Chair is accompanied by officials who are responsible for maintaining order and making reports. For the public and the press, there are galleries: they may never enter the hall itself, except for times when parliament is not in session and special guided tours are available for the public. Furthermore, it is no longer possible to find a single parliament in Europe that does not have strategically placed cameras that film everything that goes on.

30 Parliaments

Functions and Objects in the Plenary Chambers

Austria Nationalrat

Czech Republic Poslanecká sněmovna

government seats national coat of arms tv camera camera

studio

entrance

× ×

× × ×

× ×

camera

public gallery

glass doors

entrance

public gallery camera

× × × ×

× ×

official reporter folding chairs government seats

government seats

camera

press

× entrance MP seats

voting results

speaker

chair entrance microphone and electronic voting equipment

Denmark Folketinget

camera

× ×

official reporter rostrum

government seats

France Assemblée nationale

official reporter press head of state rostrum public gallery library speaker government seats

cameras

public gallery

press box

EU and national flags speaker voting results

× ×

MP seats

swivel chair

head of state speaker digital screen tv/radio national flag EU flag voting results camera

speaker

entrance digital screen national coat of arms

Belgium Chambre des représentants/ Kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers public gallery camera

rostrum public gallery

× ×

Finland Eduskunta

tv camera speaker official reporter microphone national flag EU flag rostrum MP seats

260

× ×

××

Bulgaria Hapoднo cъбpaниe

entrance

camera

× ×

digital screen MP seats

national flag tv cameras press

× × ×

chair entrance microphone and electronic voting equipment

× ×

folding chairs MP seats entrance rostrum electronic voting microphone official reporter government seats equipment

Estonia Riigikogu

rostrum national coat of arms tv camera national and EU flags digital screen

MP seats entrance official reporter folding chair microphone, headphone interpretation rostrum government seats and electronic voting equipment

camera

Germany Deutscher Bundestag

digital screen government seats speaker digital screen press/public gallery national flag

studio tv camera public gallery

studio

government seats tv cameras

national coat of arms cameras

××

× ×

Croatia Hrvatski sabor

entrance

MP seats chair rostrum microphone and electronic voting equipment official reporter

× ×

chair voting sign official reporter microphone and electronic government seats voting equipment

× × ×

× ×

national flag

interpreters’ booths

× ×

speaker EU Commission seats

EU flag MP seats chair digital screen microphone and electronic speaker voting equipment

× ×

× × ×

MP seats

rostrum national flag official reporter speaker EU flag

× ×

speaker rostrum political groups spokespersons EU Commission seats MEP seats

entrance tv/radio

× × ×

digital screen Bundesrat seats

digital screen public gallery

× × × ×

× chair

microphone, interpretation headphone and electronic voting equipment

interpreters’ national flags EU flag booths entrance camera Council seats press/public gallery

× × ×

speaker public gallery national and EU flags entrance government seats digital screen

MEP seats political groups spokespersons

European Union European Parliament, Strasbourg

press/tv government seats government seats entrance national coat of arms public gallery

× ×××

Cyprus Boυλή των Aντιπρoσώπων

Greece Boυλή των Eλλήνων

× ×× ×

chair MP seats microphone glass doors

press and national flags studio EU flag Council seats entrance public gallery MEP seats camera digital screen interpreters’ booths entrance entrance

European Union European Parliament, Brussels

public gallery tv camera camera national and EU flags entrance digital screen MP seats rostrum speaker

× ×

government seats MP seats folding chairs speaker official reporter entrance entrance electronic voting equipment

×× ×

× ×

rostrum MP seats folding chairs official reporter microphone and electronic voting equipment

Hungary Országgyűlés studio entrance

interpreters’ booths

× ×

camera national flags national flags digital screen public gallery entrance speaker entrance tv/radio camera

× ×

microphone, interpretation chair headphone and electronic voting equipment

× × × ×

× ×

rostrum government seats folding chairs official reporter MP seats entrance

entrance

MP MEP

261

members of parliament members of European Parliament

Malta Kamra tad-Deputati

Ireland Dáil Éireann press national flag public gallery digital screen entrance camera behind curtain camera digital sceen entrance

× ×

MP seats

folding chair microphone

national flag EU flag

tv camera

× ×× ×

MP seats

× ×

speaker entrance official reporter government seats

folding chairs microphone and electronic voting equipment

× ×

swivel chairs

× ×

entrance

×× ×

seats speaker official reporter rostrum MP seats government

× ×

public gallery

Lithuania Seimas

× entrance

× × × × ×

camera

Luxembourg Chambre des Députés

speaker

× × ×

× ×

entrance and lounge MP seats

rostrum government seats

press/tv/radio

× ×

speaker

MP seats

public gallery camera entrance

× ×

speaker official reporter rostrum

× entrance

×× × × × ×× ×

chair microphone

MP seats debaters’ seats

speaker rostrum two rostrums

United Kingdom House of Commons

national coat of arms national flag entrance public gallery government seats EU flag

× × ×

× ×

× ×× × ×

MP seats camera press gallery camera MP seats microphones microphones

× ×

× × × ×

folding chair MP seats microphone and electronic voting equipment

speaker rostrum government seats digital screen

government benches

microphone and electronic voting equipment

national flag voting results government seats camera digital screen entrance studio

× ×

chair electronic voting equipment

MP seats official reporter rostrum speaker chair government seats

× entrance

folding chair government seats cameras public gallery

head of state digital screen national flag

× chair microphone

Sweden Sveriges Riksdag

× ×

press/tv/radio camera

MP seats

camera chair MP seats government seats microphone and electronic rostrum voting equipment

Romania Camera Deputaţilor

national coat of arms

× ×

MP seats speaker official reporter rostrum

MP seats microphone chair rostrum with microphone and electronic national coat of arms voting equipment

public gallery

entrance

× × ×

public gallery entrance camera microphone

press

national flag and coat of arms cameras digital screen studio entrance entrance press

Portugal Assembleia da República

government seats speaker public gallery public gallery digital screen national flag special studios studio

national and EU flags camera national coat of arms digital screen

press/tv/radio

government seats entrance head of state government entrance press entrances digital screen national flag and coat of arms

microphone and electronic voting equipment

official reporter speaker entrance government seats

studios public gallery entrance

MP seats government seats public gallery official reporter

Spain Congreso de los Diputados

× ×

cameras

chair

× ×

Slovenia Državni zbor

Poland Sejm

national coat of arms public gallery digital screen national flag public entrance camera entrance EU flag tv/press corner

chair MP seats microphone and electronic voting equipment

microphones rostrum entrance speaker

× ×

glass doors

camera

Latvia Saeima

× ×

official reporter MP seats opposition public/press gallery in front of the seats

door

public gallery

The Netherlands Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal

gallery

government seats

Italy Camera dei deputati digital screen voting results tv camera

digital screen rostrum national coat of arms

× ×

×× × ×

gallery official reporter speaker government seats

entrance special studios public gallery press

door to corridor

× ×

national coat of arms national flag studio

door to corridor

× ×

Slovakia Národná rada

despatch boxes serjeant-at-arms speaker government opposition benches

European Union

Geographical Situation, 28 Member States, 2018

262

BE Belgium NL The Netherlands LU Luxembourg UK United Kingdom FR France DE Germany CZ Czech Republic DK Denmark IE Ireland AT Austria SI Slovenia SK Slovakia HR Croatia PL Poland HU Hungary IT Italy SE Sweden ES Spain LT Lithuania LV Latvia PT Portugal BG Bulgaria RO Romania EE Estonia FI Finland MT Malta GR Greece CY Cyprus

263

UK NL BE LU

DE CZ

AT SI

SK HU

BG GR

MT CY

Distance to Brussels km Travel time hours, by car/by plane

EU Brussels The Hague Luxembourg London Paris EU Strasbourg Berlin Prague Copenhagen Dublin Vienna Ljubljana Bratislava Zagreb Warsaw Budapest Rome Stockholm Madrid Vilnius Riga Lisbon Sofia Bucharest Tallinn Helsinki Valletta Athens Nicosia

– – – 169 2h00 – 220 2h15 – 227 4h45 1h15 314 3h30 1h00 435 4h30 1h00 765 7h45 1h15 899 9h00 1h30 920 10h00 1h30 960 12h00 1h45 1105 11h00 1h45 1155 11h45 1h45 1189 11h00 1h45 1295 13h30 2h00 1301 11h45 2h00 1353 13h15 2h00 1487 15h00 2h00 1563 16h00 2h00 1581 14h45 2h15 1772 19h15 2h30 1966 22h00 2h30 2047 18h45 2h30 2115 21h30 2h45 2185 21h40 2h45 2274 25h00 2h30 2360 29h00 2h30 2503 26h00 3h00 2815 28h00 3h15 3702 42h00 4h30

100 km

Brussels

Biographies

Nico Bick was born in Arnhem, the Netherlands in 1964. He studied photography at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, graduating in 1991. As a photographer, he investigates the use of (public) spaces. His work is characterised by a contemplative, often detached view of the places he photographs. In his early work, this was evidenced by a preference for inconspicuous places that are so familiar that nobody seems to notice them anymore. Nowadays he focuses on spaces that reveal a tangible tension between the public and private domains. In an age when everybody can produce digital photos easily, Nico Bick feels a strong need for an uncompromisingly analogue approach. Using a large-format camera, patience and careful observation, he creates conceptual series of highly detailed images, thereby stimulating the viewer to reflect on the subject and focusing one’s attention on both the space itself—in the absence of people—and its purpose. www.nicobick.nl Joris Luyendijk is a journalist and writer. From 1998 to 2003, he worked as a news correspondent in the Middle East for various Netherlands-based media organisations. Once back in the Netherlands, he wrote books on the gap between the image and reality of the Middle East (People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East, 2006) and Dutch politics (Je hebt het niet van mij, maar…, 2010). In 2011, Joris Luyendijk relocated to London, where he worked for The Guardian and wrote Swimming with Sharks: My Journey into the World of the Bankers. In 2017, he returned again to the Netherlands, not because of Brexit— stating that he had always been an expat and not an immigrant—but a supporter of it nonetheless. Ulrike Guérot is a historian, philosopher and political thinker. She has worked at and directed several European research institutes. Her first book, Why Europe Must Become a Republic, became a bestseller in Germany and beyond in 2014. Ulrike Guérot currently serves as a professor at Danube University Krems, where she heads up the Department for European Politics and the Study of Democracy. She also founded the European Democracy Lab in Berlin, a think tank dedicated to the future of European democracy. Frits Gierstberg is an art historian, critic and writer. In 2003 he was appointed Head of Exhibitions at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, where he currently serves as Curator. Frits Gierstberg is especially interested in both the artistic aspects of photography and its social functions and meanings. Between 2006 and 2010, he was Extraordinary Professor of Photography at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he taught documentary photography theory. He publishes regularly on international photo graphy in the Netherlands and abroad and is also (co-)editor of a number of books about photography and visual culture. Ingrid Oosterheerd is an architectural historian, editor, researcher and exhibition maker. From 1992 to 2000, she worked variously for the exhibitions and collection departments at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam. Since the mid-90s, Ingrid Oosterheerd has worked on many publications on architecture and urban planning for publishers such as nai010, Valiz, SUN and Trancity, Atelier Rijksbouwmeester and the municipality of Amsterdam. She has also made various exhibitions for architectural and cultural institutions. Joost Grootens studied architectural design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He established the Studio Joost Grootens (SJG) in 1995. In addition to designing digital information environments, maps, typefaces and spatial installations, Joost Grootens works primarily in the field of book design. In 2010 he was appointed Head of the Information Design Master’s programme at Design Academy Eindhoven. Since 2015, Joost Grootens is an Artistic Research PhD candidate in the PhDArts programme of Leiden University and the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague.

270

271

Colophon

Photography and concept Image processing Film developing Film scanning Design and data visualisations Authors Copy-editing Translation (Dutch–English) Production and research data Publisher Printing and lithography Lithography (back cover image) Binding

Nico Bick De Verbeelding/Arjan van der Raadt Fotolab MPP, Amsterdam and De Verbeelding, Purmerend Drumscanservice, Amsterdam SJG/Joost Grootens, Dimitri Jeannottat, Carina Schwake Frits Gierstberg, Ulrike Guérot, Joris Luyendijk Jane Bemont, Els Brinkman Jane Bemont Ingrid Oosterheerd nai010 publishers/Eelco van Welie NPN Drukkers, Breda Marjeta Morinc Van Mierlo, Nijmegen

Photography and traveling to the 30 parliaments in the project were supported in part by the Anna Cornelis Fund, the Kwadraat Fund and the Mondriaan Fund. This publication was made possible in part through the support of the Mondriaan Fund, the Jaap Harten Fund, the Gijselaar-Hintzen Fund, the European Cultural Foundation and the Creative Industries Fund NL. Nico Bick would like to thank the following: the staffs of the 28 national parliaments in the European Union and the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg; Ingrid Oosterheerd for her love, perseverance and keeping the Parliaments project afloat; the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam for showing the photographs for the first time. Special thanks for making the Parliaments of the European Union project, the accompanying exhibition and publication possible goes to: Laurent Alberti, Alexandra Athanasiadou, Nadine Barth, Peter Bongers, Lobke Broos, Philip Cordery, Marcel Fleer, Frits Gierstberg, Joost Grootens, Ulrike Guérot, Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis, Johan Harsevoort, Bart Hofstede, Frank den Hond, Ron de Hoog, Anne Hoogewoning, Vangelis Ioakimidis, Aldwin Izarin, Dimitri Jeannottat, Craig Johnston, Stergios Karavatos, Gunilla Knape, Niek Koppen, Sekhar Lahiri, Tula Liasi, Hans van der Linde, Joris Luyendijk, Andrew Murray, Ingrid Oosterheerd, Louis Pirenne, Mandy Prins, Arjan van der Raadt, Tineke de Ruiter†, Bart Sorgedrager, Ursula den Tex, Anneke van Veen, Ruud Visschendijk, Eelco van Welie, Marieke Wiegel, Michael Windig, Gerrit Jan Wolffensperger. Thanks for their support and belief in this publication: Steven Ambrose Abbott, Riemig Aerts, Jack Amoureus, Taco Anema, Marco Baars, Martijn Baudoin, Marius van den Berg, Daniëlle Berger-Bick, Paul van de Beukering, Haico Beukers, Carla Bick-Diener†, John Bijl, Henk Blokhuis, Thom Bogaard, Hans Booms, Claudette Braly, Els Brinkman, Arnd Bronkhorst, Ruud Brouwers and Lily Hermans, Pieter de Bruijne, Martin Buckers, Maurice Bun, Hans van Commenée, Floris Cornelisse, Emil Coyajee, Angelique Crouwel, Inge Dekker, Karin Dekker, Valentijn Dhaenens, Wanda Dubois, Marcel Fleer, Reinier Gerritsen, Frits Gierstberg, Ineke Haak-Breel, David de Haan, Johan Harsevoort, Carla Hoetink, Frank den Hond, Ron de Hoog, Ruurd Hoogcarspel, Anne Hoogewoning, Suze Jans, Tom Jongeling and Nynke de Vries, Walter Jansen, Stergios Karavatos, Nicolas Karayannis, Indira van ‘t Klooster, Ivonne Kloosterman-Oosterheerd, Talmon Kochheim, Ira Koers, Luuk Kramer, Corine Krijgsman, Raamatupood Krisostomus, Sekhar Lahiri, Tula Liasi, Femke Lutgerink, Hans van der Made, Loes Marquenie, Peter Mekes, Panos Mitsopoulos, Annemieke Mobach, Joost Molenaar, Marcel Molle, Wouter de Moor, Nanda Mulder-Bick, Jeroen Musch, Bettina Nelemans, Pierre Obrecht, Klaske Oenema, Rina Oosterheerd-Breel†, Peter Oswaldt, Parlement bruxellois, Periklesinstituut, Ferry van Pieterson, Joseph Plateau, J.K. Ploos van Amstel, ProDemos, Wim van Putten, Arjan van der Raadt, Harm Ramkema, Aatjan Renders, Egle Suminskaite, Amit Roy, Tineke de Ruiter, Riny Rutten, Ph. Schornack van der Waag, Nina Scherer, Mikael Schrage, Beate Schröder, Marijn Seuters, Erwin Slaats, Martine Spanjers, Madeleine Stein, Atanga Udom, Jos Urbanus and Lidwien Neijens, Kurt Van den Bossche, Anneke van Veen, Stephanie Veltkamp, Ruud Vermeer and Heleen Burer, Dirk Verwoerd, S.F. Vis, Jeroen Vos, Bas Vroege, Elbert Waller, Barry van Waveren, Anke Wellecomme, Marieke Wiegel, Caroline van Wijk, Sander van Wijk, Anchrit Wille, Julien Wintenberger, René Wolf, Gerrit Jan Wolffensperger, Raimond Wouda, Jan Zijlstra, Robbert Zweegman. For the key data presented in the diagrams, charts and lists various websites were consulted: the websites of the 28 parliaments of the EU member states, the websites of the European Parliament (www.europarl.europa.eu) and the European Union (www.europa.eu), the Inter-Parliamentary Union Parline database (www.ipu.org/parline-e/parlinesearch.asp) and Wikipedia. Accessed October 2018. First edition, 2019 © 2019 Nico Bick, for the reproduced photographic works © 2019 nai010 publishers and individual authors All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recorded or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. Published by nai010 publishers P.O. Box 21927 3001 AX Rotterdam The Netherlands Distribution: The Netherlands and Belgium: nai010 publishers, www.nai010.com North, South and Central America: D.A.P., www.artbook.com Rest of the world: Idea Books, www.ideabooks.nl Individual orders: www.nai010.com, sales@nai010.com ISBN 978 94 6208 361 5 NUR 652 BISAC POL058000/PHO001000 Printed and bound in the EU