Introduction

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is run by party politicians. All three branches of its political leadership — the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Council — are predominantly recruited from political parties. Most Commissioners, whose task it is to propose new initiatives, are selected from senior members of the leading political parties of the member states. It has also become customary for the presidency of the Commission, whose potential for political entrepreneurship was greatly extended by Jacques Delors, to alternate between the Union’s main party political families of the centre left and centre right. The Council of Ministers, which makes decisions and laws based on the Commission’s recommendations, involves government ministers from right across the range of specialist portfolios (foreign affairs, finance, industry, agriculture and so on). This means that all political parties that are members of a national governing coalition are automatically sucked into the management of the Union. The European Council, which does a great deal to set the overall direction of the Union and to link its sometimes diffuse processes, is made up of the heads of government, who are usually leaders of political parties, and often of the largest single party in each member state.