ABSTRACT
Since the introduction of direct elections to the European Parliament (EP) in 1979, the potential for a European-level party system has focused upon the presence and activities of the EP party groups.1 To the extent that a European party system may contain characteristics resembling national systems, a minimum set of properties should include a range of political parties operating and competing in an organized pattern.2 Further, elections should contain the promise of gaining primary influence within the decision-making apparatus of the governance structure. Indeed, the institutional enhancement of the EP itself is viewed as the primary prerequisite for an emergent party system, and the adoption of characteristics similar to those of national parliaments in relation to governmental power.3 Since the late 1970s, with the establishment of transnational party federations, and, more recently, changes within the federations as they have sought the more explicit appearance of party organizations,4 analysis of transnational party co-operation has broadened beyond the institutional confines of the EP. Nevertheless, as the most explicit site for European-level party political dynamics, the evolution of EP party groups in the 1990s has come to be seen as of prime importance for partisan articulation and influence at the European level.
