Parties Beyond the Parliament

Abstract

In this chapter we turn to the emergence of parties at the European level outside the European Parliament. The main extra-parliamentary structures in the EU are the party federations. Since their birth in the mid-1970s, the internal mechanisms of the party federations have become more complex and regularised, and the external links between the party federations and the EU institutions have strengthened (particularly through the emerging role of the Party Leaders’ Meetings). As a result, party organisation beyond the EP has evolved from ‘transnational party cooperation’ for coordinating the European election campaigns to ‘nascent Euro-parties’ that attempt to extend party activities to the main agenda-setting arena in EU politics (the European Council).