Providing an Infrastructure for Research on Electoral Democracy in the European Union (PIREDEU)

Co-ordinated by the European University Institute and its Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme from 2008 up to 2011, this Collaborative Project has its origins in the European Election Studies (EES) conducted under various auspices since 1979. The three-year design study will assess the feasibility of an upgrade to the European Election Studies that will provide an infrastructure for research into citizenship, political participation, and electoral democracy in the European Union (EU). The scientific and technical feasibility of this infrastructure will be investigated by means of a pilot study conducted in the context of the 2009 elections to the European parliament. If successful the EES will be in a position to request funds to create a comprehensive empirical database that would endow the social science community with the most essential information required for a recurrent audit of the most important aspects of the electoral process in the European Union.