The subject of this chapter is the final, and so far the most import­ ant, dimension in the triangular construction of transnational party co-operation - the individual national parties of the nine Com­ munity member states; and how they conditioned the Euro-parliamentary and transnational party-organisational dimensions during the process of politicisation in the period 1974-9. The distinctive feature of this period was the growth of the interlinkage between these three dimensions, which previously had been extremely mini­ mal and, in any case, had not been properly triangular in the absence of a viable transnational organisational element related specifically to the EC. This change resulted at the national level from a more serious attention to transnational links, a greater readiness to intensify and to institutionalise them and a recognition of the need to develop them with a more political content in the light of direct elections and the wider context of politicisation in the EC, with its stronger recognition that many problems could only be solved Community-wide.