ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explains that there has been some advance in both party-political Europeanisation' and internalisation' of European standpoints. It describes the qualitative change amounted to in transnational party co-operation as a process of politicisation. The comparative-political approach is useful in highlighting characteristics of transnational party co-operation with reference to familiar criteria of party-political behaviour, although as noted earlier on several occasions these can only be applied to a restricted extent owing to the uniqueness of European integration as a form of politics. The formation of the European Progressive Democrats (DEP), as a combined representation of two different national parties in France and Ireland, illustrates on the other hand that original transnational forces are possible, if seemingly artificial, while other familiar forces such as the Conservatives have adopted transnational names.
