EUROPEAN-UNION INSTITUTIONS AND FRENCH POLITICAL CAREERS

This article examines one aspect of the relationship between European Union institutions and the French political field: politicians' career s. What is the value of positions in the Commission and the European P arliament for French politicians in terms of career mobility? This stu dy shows that the value of the Commission as a source of domestic poli tical capital has risen since the 1950s, whereas the value of the Euro pean Parliament has remained relatively low. The position of Commissio ner is now comparable to a ministerial-level position. Membership in t he European Parliament has remained secondary to a national political career. Yet, as a result of the European Parliament's peripheral posit ion in the French political field, new social groups, linking the regi ons to the European institutions or forming cross-partisan interest gr oups, have been created. Evidence shows that if the European Union ins titutions present an alternative type of political capital to national political capital, political careers and ambitions are still formed i n national terms. National mechanisms for the formation of groups havi ng a vested interest in the relative autonomy of supranational politic al institutions have not developed sufficiently. This inadequacy might be the single most important reason for the democratic deficit in the European Union.