Europiniai ar / ir nacionaliniai interesai? Lojalumo dilemos ir Lietuvos piliečių atstovavimas Europos Parlamente

Since 2004, when Lithuania became a member of the European Union, Lithuanians have participated in four European Parliament elections, electing from 13 to 11 EP members in separate terms. Although the elections themselves are still considered by the electorate less important in comparison to the national ones, interest in them is still growing among politicians and the population. The former participate more in the candidacy, and the latter participate more actively in the voting, especially when these elections coincide with the second round of the presidential election in Lithuania. Analyzing various aspects of European Union policy, we have noticed that campaigning and results of the European elections are discussed and studied in many ways among scholars, and the daily activities of MEPs lacks media and research attention in non-election time though. This encouraged us to prepare the project for the Lithuanian Science Council State Research and Dissemination Program No. S-LIP-19-65 “Representation of Lithuanian Citizens and Interests in the European Parliament” and to conduct a study which main results are discussed in the monograph. This project has been running since May 2019 until 2021 end.[...]