ABSTRACT

The Labour leadership was conveyed its position to its Party of European Socialists (PES) colleagues at various levels, including at the regular PES leaders' meetings, PES bureau meetings and meetings of the PES intergovernmental conference (IGC) working-group which had been set up by the PES bureau in September 1994. The advantages and disadvantages brought by the European parliamentary Labour party's (EPLP's) role within the PES group in many ways mirrored those brought through Labour's wider relationship with the PES party confederation. The positions that Labour had adopted on the EP were illustrative of the influence that the EPLP representatives had within the leader's working-group (LWG). Trade unions were denied the formal input into policy-making accorded to the EPLP and PES group. The prime concern for the Labour leadership in managing its relationship with the trade unions was to ensure that the latter did not cause it any public embarrassment.