ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some insight into the development of national Euro-elites that work together within a multilevel European Union (EU) governance system. It intends to study the formation of the national Euro-elites of the EU, in general, and the Portuguese national Euro-elite, in particular. The chapter identifies the main trends towards convergence of national Euro-elites. It describes the study of the network of interactions that existed during the Portuguese presidency in 2000. The chapter explains the concepts of the Euro-elite on the research agenda of EU politics. A study of the operative political and administrative elites on European affairs at all levels can only be achieved by a differentiated approach that will look at elites from various perspectives. For this a typology of European elite formation has to be conceptualized that is broad enough to take into account national, transnational, and supranational elites, which represent the voluntaristic thrust of European integration, or in some cases desintegration.
