The classic model of representative democracy is one in which politicians compete for power through political parties. Parties structure and simplify choice for the electorate. And because the same parties usually persist from one election to another the opportunity to reward or punish a party for past performance is a vital link in the mechanism by which politicians are held accountable to the public. For reasons such as these the capacity of the European Union to generate parties that link the public to the exercise of power in its own political system (rather than national ones) is critical to prospects of filling the democratic deficit. This does not necessarily mean that Euro-parties need to be as strong or as integrated as national ones. A system that relied on the direct election of the Commission (or its President) or use of EU-wide referenda would, for example, require much weaker parties than the classic model of parliamentary party government that is only viable so long as parties are united and hierarchical enough to keep executives in office for long enough to carry out a meaningful political programme. However, which ever way you slice it, the democratisation of the Union probably requires a contribution of some kind from political parties.

Another much neglected point is that almost all actors in the Union are party politicians. Although Commissioners are required to be independent of their member states, most are recruited from the leading political parties of the member states; and they do occassionally get together in transnational groupings - the Socialist (PES) Commissioners or the Christian Democrat/Conservative (EPP) Commissioners. All members of the Council of Ministers are members of national party of governments and, of course, the Heads of Government who meet in the European Council are usually leaders of the largest parties in the member states. Most members of the European Parliament live a double life as players in not one but two party systems. They are elected as representatives of national parties but serve in the EP in transnational party groups. The key point is that the importance of party politics to those who make EU decisions creates a different logic to the two factors - intergovernmental bargaining of 'national interests' and supranational leadership - that dominate most of the existing literature on the EU. The need for politicians to get elected and stay elected - or to help their friends to achieve these goals - will also influence the way in which EU policy is made.