This can be seen as an instance of how political parties tend to adapt their
activities to where real power lies in any political system. For, whereas
European elections are dominated by national issues in a way that reduces the
value of using the Federations to agree common programmes, the European Council
is a key site for agenda-setting and political legitimacy in EU decision-making.
To give you an idea of what happens in the Party Leaders' summits, the following
section reproduces the communiqué of the PES Leaders' summit held in
Essen in December 1994. To see whether this meeting made a difference, you might
also compare the PES communiqué with what was subsequently agreed at the
European Council meeting also at Essen (the day afterwards). Details are to be
found in extracts from proceedings of the European Council in the Council
section of these teaching materials.