PARTIES AT THE EUROPEAN LEVEL AND THE LEGITIMACY OF EU SOCIOECONOMIC POLICY

Article 138A of the Treaty on European Union envisages 'parties at the European level' as integrators in the EU system. However, this concep tion is unrealistic. Firstly, the relationship between parties and leg itimacy in advanced democracies has fundamentally changed. And, second ly, transnational parties are limited by the EU institutional structur e and the dominance of national-territorial interests in EU politics. Accepting these constraints, however, the transnational party federati ons have begun to focus only on socioeconomic issues, and to compete o ver the setting of the medium-term agenda on these questions in the Eu ropean Council.