Beyond conditionality: EU enlargement, European party federations and the transnational activity of German political foundations

Abstract

This article deals with the mechanisms and the impact of the enlargement process on the identity of Polish political elites. This process is closely related to the evolution of EU governance; new political partners will have ‐ and already have had ‐ an impact on the decision making process at different levels of the EU. We start off with a review of the theoretical literature on the EU's normative impact on the work and role of political parties. This is followed by an analytical study of European party federations, EU enlargement and the interrelationship between the ‘logic of appropriateness’ and the ‘logic of expected consequences’. The article provides a case study of one non‐governmental actor which has been particularly active in the field of transnational communication, namely, the German political foundations. Our empirical evidence calls into question the notion of conditionality as the major explanatory factor of EU‐induced change.