Conclusions: Transnational Parties—Elusive, But Deserving More Attention

Abstract

Despite a stronger legal basis and gradual organizational development, Europarties remain primarily transnational partisan actors dependent on their national member parties. The concluding chapter argues that it is precisely this transnational character that makes Europarties so elusive: they operate simultaneously at intergovernmental and supranational levels of decision-making, and measuring their impact is inherently difficult. Europarties are likely to remain in the background without institutional reforms to the electoral system or the institutional set-up of the EU, but they continue to wield a strong influence on the ‘future of Europe’. The challenge is to bring the Europarties closer to the citizens and to avoid decoupling between national and European politics which may also erode the internal cohesion of the Europarties.