IngentaConnect 7. The Evolution of Europe's Transnational Political Parties in t...

Authors: Day, Stephen; Shaw, Jo

Source: The State of the European Union, 6, September 2003 , pp. 149-170(22)

Publisher: Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs

Abstract:

Examines the constitutionalization of transnational political parties in the EU, with particular attention to the question of whether this new organizational form (federations of national parties) brings openness to an EU that should be closer to the citizen. The discussion is with respect to the five existing Euro-parties: The European People's Party; the Party of European Socialists; the European Liberal, Democrat, and Reform Party; the European Federation of Greens; and the Democratic Party of the Peoples of Europe/European Free Alliance. Explores both the emergence of Euro-parties focussing on the inclusion of new political rights provisions in the 2003 Treaty of Nice and the internal and external identity of Euro-parties. Day and Shaw link the normative aspirations embodied in the Treaty to the real-world significance of transnational political parties, both as the key link for citizens to EU politics and for their role within the wider process of European integration and expansion. The four sections of the chapter are: Introduction; European Parties in an Era of European Citizenship—a review of the context for the development of the Euro-party as an organizational form in the 1990s and early 2000s; The Identity and Nature of Euro-Parties—types and self-presentation, and the extent of the real-world significance of Euro-parties as potential representative entities of European citizens and their role within the wider process of future European integration; and Conclusion.

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7. The Evolution of Europe's Transnational Political Parties in the Era of European Citizenship