Introduction

This chapter analyses neo-functionalism and its relationship to the development of an integrated Europe. Members of the European Parliament, when questioned about the leafleting union members, responded that this was the first time they remembered any European interest group demonstrating at a parliamentary sitting. The relationship between attempts by academics to build a cogent theory of regional integration and attempts by Europeans to build a regional system is very close. The investigation of group activity at the European level which follows will take the form of a study of the campaign for the first direct elections to the European Parliament. As Karl Kaiser of the German Society for Foreign Affairs noted, direct elections throughout the Community have the potential for changing the substance and focus of European politics and for "creating new trans-national political links in Europe." The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.