Political Parties in the European Union provides a comprehensive assessment of the importance of party politics to the functioning of the European Union which the authors argue has frequently been underestimated. Incorporating much new research material it covers not only the transnational party groups in the European Parliament but also the participants in the European Council and Council of Ministers who, the authors remind us, are not just representatives of 'national interests' but also party politicians.

This volume on the politics of the European Union presents the EU as an emerging "political system", in which the government, policies and the politics of the system are inextricably linked. It looks at the way the EU is analyzed, studied and taught and provides comprehensive coverage of EU politics and a method of conceptualizing the EU.