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AbstractThe abundant literature on the European Constitution has largely overlooked the role party politics played in the European Convention. This article fills this gap by analyzing transnational party groups: how they were organized and which purposes they served. It shows that they mattered, but in unexpected ways due to the particular set‐up of the Convention. For instance, they helped to bring MEPs and MNPs closer to each other. Overall, the analysis contributes to a better understanding of how parties operate at the transnational level and helps to explain the way in which polity‐building in the European Union's multi‐level system takes place.

Compared to national political parties, transnational party federations (often known as Europarties) play little role in the European Union (EU). They have no government-making power, and national party politics continue to dominate European Parliament elections. The literature therefore focuses primarily on national political parties operating within the EU framework and on supranational party groups in the European Parliament. In contrast, this review article examines what transnational party federations are and what they do within the context of EU governance, in addition to and reconsidering them in light of recent developments in the EU. By analysing party politics at the transnational level, this article bridges the gap in the literature between research that focuses on the national level and research that focuses on the supranational level. The key conclusion is that transnational party federations do matter, but in a manner different from that of national political parties and supranational party groups. Because transnational party federations offer partisan linkages between different EU institutions, they influence politics and policy-making, in addition to contributing to the increasing politicisation of the EU polity.

Despite some recent studies addressing the Europeanization of political parties, we know very little about the relationship between national political parties and transnational party federations. By contrast, the framework for analysis developed in this article considers the active
role of national parties in transnational politics and the specific nature of transnational party federations. This model is then applied to the Partido Popular and the European People's Party, of which the first has been a member since 1991. It shows that, between the foundation of
the Partido Popular in 1989 and 2004, when it lost power at the national level, there have been mutual patterns of Europeanization but concrete indications of Europeanization in partygovernment relations are lacking. It is therefore still far from constituting a Europeanized party.

Although demography has never figured prominently in contemporary political ideologies, there may be a great need to include such issues as demographic changes accelerate. This article seeks to offer a framework within the ideology of Christian Democracy and Conservatism for demographic change. The author's argument centres on divergent and shared characteristics of Christian Democracy and Conservatism which would provide a window of understanding on demography policies. What these two ideologies appear to have in common on demographic issues are their shared support for individual human rights, their subscription to the primacy of the community and their pragmatic viewpoint.

While Christian Democratic parties in several Western European countries are often said to be in crisis, the European People's Party holds the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament since 1999. This paradox relies on the specificity of the different 'national' electoral logics on the one hand and the realisation of a long-term 'European' majority strategy on the other hand. The alliance with Conservatives and Conservative parties has to overcome an absolute electoral decline in 'old' EU countries and a relative decline through the accession of 'new' member states without Christian Democratic parties. The EPP majority strategy is realised through various ways : the key position of the transnational party and party group, the role of political leadership, the way of decision making, the co-operation with side-organisations, the problem-solving of ideological conflicts, etc. Our analysis proves how the majority strategy of the European Christian Democrats realises its ultimate 'survival strategy' despite (or thanks to) several nationalparty crises.