European Union and Political Parties: the case of the Party of European Socialists (PES) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Party of European Socialists and Its Problems
Europe and the Left, 2020
This chapter engages with the main theme of the volume (the possible emergence of a left-wing integrationist agenda at EU level), with a focus on the Party of European Socialists (PES), the social democratic transnational party federation (TNP). TNPs have a contested role-for some they are the nuclei of a nascent EU-level party system; for many others they are 'timidly rising actors' (Bardi 2004). At the very least they play a role as party networks, pooling party resources, particularly in programmatic terms via a common manifesto at European parliamentary (EP) elections, and occasionally they act as genuine force multipliers, projecting a more common party family agenda at EU level. In short, if there is any more pronounced left-wing integrationist agenda to be found, it should be visible in the policies and practices of the PES as a TNP. Indeed, this chapter does show such an agenda emerging in the PES' manifestos. This agenda remains profoundly in favour of the principles and main policies of European integration. However, criticism of the EU
2008
The literature devoted to political parties at the European level-also known as the 'Europarties'-frequently argues that due to the impact of the EU's peculiar institutional environment and the need to adapt to it, Europarties have converged on some common organizational features. Building on neo-institutional theories of party change and adaptation, and especially on historical and sociological institutionalism, this thesis offers an alternative set of explanations for the organizational forms of the Europarties. In so doing, it brings into question both the extent of their organizational convergence and the primary focus of the literature on environmental factors, as well the limits of the few comparisons between Euro-and national level party organizations that have been made thus far.
The European People’s Party and the Party of European Socialists: government and opposition?
European View, 2009
Since the introduction of direct elections for the European Parliament, the politics of this institution have presented a very low degree of adversarial confrontations amongst the two major European parties, the EPP and the PES. In the last round of elections, however, there have been signs of substantial change in direction of a more direct electoral confrontation between the PES and the EPP. According to the author, both the party manifestos and the strong political activity that preceded the nomination of the new President of the Commission signal the emergence of a sui-generis governmentopposition relation between the two major parties in the European Parliament. This, still far from resembling the spirit of national politics, may represent the beginning of a new and more dynamic political confrontation around the European institutions.
The evolution of the European People's Party after the integration of parties from Western and Eastern Europe. Lessons to be learned for European Integration and the development of Europarties, 2016
The aim of this PhD thesis is to review and re-envisage the foundation and development of the European People’s Party (EPP). This Thesis is based on primary research data aiming to inspire the academic discussion on the Europarties within the European integration context. Starting from its creation and early-days period, in the 1970s, as the ‘party’ of the Christian Democratic parties from member states of the European Communities and going through the subsequent integration of political parties from Western and, later on, Eastern European countries, in the 1980s and 1990s to its status at the early 2000s. The originally founded ‘Christian Democratic organisation’ was transformed to a political family, or a ‘network’, of centre-right parties including Christian democratic, conservative and like minded parties. We will attempt to understand why this change took place, under what reasons, dependent and independent variables, normative conditions, within the historical context. We will follow the timeline of events in the wider context of the European integration that has been underlining, historically, our subject. Our Thesis is structured in two axes: A timeline of ten chapters on the one hand and four hypotheses that we are putting forward. We have also constructed and put in annex information that can be helpful for further research. Highlights are on Annex 8 the list of contents that we have reconstructed from the historical archive of the EPP. First we walk through the historical timeline: In “Chapter 1: History” we start from the years preceding to the creation of the EPP. We go back to the origins of transnational party cooperation walking through to the discussions in the 1970s for launching new European party federations. We took time to explore not just the EPP historical archive (Codification IX-007-XXX) but also the EUCD archive (IX-004-XXX) and even some volumes from the NEI historical archive (IX-002-XXX) mainly to get familiar with the level of integration of the earlier organisations and historical period in the 1950s and the 1960s. In “Chapter 2: the creation of the EPP” the reader will find presentation of historical archive accumulated from both archive documents and interviews. We aim to better understand all the aspects behind the creation of the EPP in 1976. We reveal the underlining factors cultivating the desire for a new political organisation, the map of interest of the key players and why it finally kicked off the ground in 1976. In “Chapter 3: the enlargement of the 1980s” we move on the 1980s, the change of leadership twice in the EPP, in 1984 and 1987, the enlargement of the EPP with new parties from western Europe and the talks about opening up towards the Conservatives. In “Chapter 4: the opening up of Eastern Europe” we discuss the opening up of the EPP towards the countries of the former Eastern block in central and eastern Europe and the major historical events of the collapse of communism and the emerging new European countries. In “Chapter 5: the enlargement to the conservative parties” we explore the opening up to more conservative parties in the 1990s, especially towards the 1994 enlargement, the difficult Scandinavian conservative parties. In “Chapter: 6 Merger with the EUCD and the EDU” we follow the developments between the EPP and its sister orgsanisations. We put forward all the evidence that demonstrates the core strategy of the EPP to streamline the cooperation in the centre right into one single organisation despite the successful history and record of the EDU and the ‘parent organisation’ background of the EUCD. In “Chapter 7: Understanding and assessing the EPP enlargement” we touch upon the Europeanisation concept, particularly in Eastern Europe and we contending that it has had different implications to different parties from different countries. Aiming to address these phenomena, we are introducing the term “inhomogenus Europeanisation” to capture this diversity of effects in the political reality of the actors involved. We are further assessing the enlargement beyond Christian Democracy in the context of its historical decline. Finally, we are reviewing the role of the key protagonists and the German actors in particular, who from a minority position to the right side of the EPP spectrum in the 1970s and 80s it became the dominant power in the centre of the EPP from the 1990s hitherto. In “Chapter 8: The EPP beyond 1999” we are discussing the developments in the 2000s, the years of reaping the fruits of its enlargement strategy in terms of its parliamentary and party size. After the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, where the EU moved from 15 to 27 member states the EPP continued its restructuring and repositioning. In every single country of the EU enlargement, the EPP had already acquired the most important center-right political party in its ranks. In “Chapter 9: Europarties and European integration” we are discussing the role of European parties within the European Union institutions and decision making. We are also discussing the widely debated concept of politicization of the Union from the perspective of European parties. This discussion is relevant today in the period of the ongoing financial trouble in the Eurozone and how the crisis has affected the role of the European parties. Finally, in “Chapter 10: Summary and end remarks” we are putting together the findings from our research findings and secondary sources reading and drawing conclusions on our topic. The second axis of this work, running parallel to the Timeline, is to contemplate four hypotheses. Each one of them has come out of the primary research for the historical period involved, while it does revisit aspects of what we know today. The first hypothesis focuses on the foundation period in the 1970s where we will present evidence that the EPP was not founded as a loose federation of parties that would evolve over time and parallel to the gradual integration of the European institutions. Insofar the European Communities did evolve gradually from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s following Treaty reform that delegated more and more powers and competences to the Community level, there is a broader understanding that the EPP followed a similar pattern of integration. We are challenging this universal idea with facts and figures from the historical archive that are probably brought about for the first time. The second hypothesis is related to the enlargement of the EPP towards non-Christian democratic parties. We will present that the original idea was not to enlarge to parties from other, albeit neighboring, political traditions. Instead, the original expectation was that these parties would adopt, would adhere to Christian Democracy. The idea of enlargement did not exist in the EPP culture and language during its early days in the 1980s and even early 1990s! Surprising or not, prospective members cooperated with this attitude and declared their adherence to the Christian Democratic ideals, regardless of their differing political culture and diverging national context. This applies to parties from both western and eastern Europe. The third hypothesis reveals the strategy of the EPP towards its enlargement during the 1980s and 1990s, in particular as regards the emerging of new democracies in the central and eastern parts of Europe after the collapse of Communism. Opposite to what we knew up to now the EPP designed and implemented an active policy of proliferation of Christian Democracy towards the new countries and invested significant human and material resources in this direction. We have had very little information before about this but the evidence we bring in is strong and sound. Given that Christian Democracy was already in decline in western Europe in the late 1980s and the early 1990s this hypothesis says a lot about the culture and the internal dynamics of the EPP. The strategy originated and was inspired by the case of Spain in the late 1980s with the creation of the Partido Popular. Following Spain, the most difficult case of the British Conservatives was explored with a long-lasting project that took over two years to complete with the 1992 agreement between the EPP group and the European Democratic Group in the European Parliament. From the early 1990s, a large project of going east was deployed towards the new democracies. Last but not least, our fourth hypothesis contemplates the comparative perspective of the EPP today with its early days. Contrary to what is widely accepted, even from skeptics, the EPP today is not more integrated than it was in the early days. The small number of members, the high degree of ideological cohesion and the core ideals of Christian Democracy were the three key factors that, aggregated together, created a highly integrated status. Especially given the broader loose integration of the European Communities. This hypothesis can have significant implications that challenge traditional theories' content about the progress of integration.
Political Parties in the European Union
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 2019
Media often portrays European Union (EU) decision-making as a battleground for national governments that defend the interests of their member states. Yet even the most powerful individuals, such as the German chancellor, the French president, or the Commission president, are party politicians. At the same time the consistent empowerment of the European Parliament (EP) means that the party groups of European-level "Europarties"-political parties at European level-are in a key position to shape EU legislation. The Parliament has also become more directly involved in the appointment of the Commission, with the results of EP elections thus influencing the composition of the Commission. Examining the "partyness" of European integration, this article argues that scholarly understanding of the role of parties in the EU political system has taken great strides forward since the turn of the millennium. This applies especially to the EP party groups, with research focusing particularly on voting patterns in the plenary. This body of work has become considerably more sophisticated and detailed over the years; it shows that the main EP groups do achieve even surprisingly high levels of cohesion and that the left-right dimension is the primary axis of contestation in the chamber. It nonetheless also emphasizes the continuing relevance of national parties that control candidate selection in EP elections. Considering that most votes in the Parliament are based on cooperation between the two largest groups, the center-right European People's Party (EPP) and the center-left Party of the European Socialists (PES), future research should analyze in more detail how these groups build compromises. Actual Europarties, however, remain relatively unexplored. Case studies of treaty reforms or particular policy sectors reveal how individual Europarties have often wielded decisive influence on key integration decisions or key appointments to EU institutions. The Europarty meetings held in conjunction with European Council summits are particularly important in this respect. The regular, day-today activities of Europarties deserve more attention, both regarding decision-making and vertical links between national parties and their Europarties. Overall, it is probably more accurate to characterize Europarties as networks of like-minded national parties or as loose federations of member parties, especially when compared with the often centralized and strongly disciplined parties found in the member states.
Does a European Party System Exist? A Conceptual Framework for Analysis
2011
Since the first European elections in 1979 and the empowerment of the European parliament (EP), the research agenda on the EP has been focused on understanding the emergence of “Europarties” and a “European party system”. However, although the scholars who study the party phenomenon at the EU level refer to the concept of party system, the question of the existence of such a system has never been properly examined. Without being debated, the concept is used by convenience. In a similar manner, scholars tend to confuse the conditions of existence and the classification criteria (i.e. division state and ideological polarization) of a party system. In other words, rather than establishing the conditions of existence of a party system, these researches have been trying to determine the form that it could have taken. This mix-up can be explained by the lack of interest of the political scientists in the definition of the concept of party system. On this matter, Sartori’s (1970) well-known distinction between the intension and the extension of a concept helps us to characterize this propensity of scholars concerning the party systems: while there are numerous typologies of party systems, we can hardly find any clarification of the concept properties. Thus, the concept of party system does not escape to the reef of “conceptual stretching”. In light of these observations, I will favor a deductive method (Stoker, 1995). Such a method requires on the one hand examining the properties of the concept of party system, by identifying the conditions of existence of a party system. On the other hand, I will compare this framework with the system formed by the European political organizations (parliamentary groups and European federations). This method has the advantage of clearly indentifying the conditions of existence that this “unidentified political object” must satisfy in order to pretend to the label of European party system. The paper will be organized as follows: Fist, I will provide an overview on the research area on the emergence of “Europarties” and a European party system. Second, I will specify the conditions of existence of a party system. Third, the paper will explain why the European partisan network does not pretend to the label of party system.
The Concept of the European Political Party
2017
The European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EC) No. 2004/2003 on the regulations governing political parties at European level and the rules regarding their funding only in the end of 2003. Reforming the regulation was on the agenda for several years before the new regulation on party funding was finally adopted in 2014. In this paper I intend to present the new regulation (Regulation No 1141/2014 of 22 October 2014), focusing on selected aspects: the justification for funding and the definition of European political party; next, I shall give an overview and structured analysis of the constitutional issues of the definition of political parties and their funding by the European Union. Since political finances are considered to be basic elements of the fundamental principle of democracy, which is to be achieved on both the national and the supranational level, it is worth comparing the new regulation to the principles and standards established by the Council of Europe on the regulation of political parties.
The political phase and the European party
2020
The nine members of the CPN who are signatories to this document, activists in the Bandiera Rossa current, belonged to the majority at the time of the last congress of the PRC in 2002 (see IV 340, May 2002). The CPN adopted by 67 votes the resolution presented by the majority which approves the PRC's joining the Party of the European left (PGE), whose founding congress will be held in Rome on May 8-9. 53 people voted against this project. The opposition was divided between four other resolutions: one criticizing the project of the PGE because it does not involve the more orthodox CPs (the Greek KKE, the Portuguese CP and the CPs of eastern Europe) and asking the that the founding congress of the PGE be put off until after the European elections (30 votes), two others considering that the project of the PGE testifies to a capitulation to reformism (12 votes) and accusing it of abandoning "the class programme" (4 votes), and finally the document which we reproduce here (7 votes in the absence of two of the signatories). The CPN elected a delegation of 12 members-6 women and 6 men-to represent the PRC at the founding congress of the PGE, including Flavia D'Angeli and Gigi Malabarba. A thread runs through the various aspects of the debate in our party. It exists at various levels, which, apparently, move on parallel courses but which represent, taken one by one or as a block, a constant slippage in relation to the decisions of the last congress. The party is currently plunged in confusion and malaise and faces difficulties with regard to its capacity for militant initiative. The discussion on the European party is only one aspect of this situation and it would be not very comprehensible without a more general reflection. For these reasons, we propose, for discussion and vote, a general document, analysing the current situation and proposing choices which result from this.