The tone here was set by the Socialists, who had a highly organized Socialist International which spawned a "Confederation of Socialist Parties of the European Community" in 1974, formed a European Parliament group in 1979, and culminated in the Party of European Socialists as early as 1992.
This structure has been mimicked already by the Center-Right parties in the Christian Democrat - Popular Party international, and the European People's Party.
Now the Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left follows suit.
Definitely a step in the right direction, but we are still lacking a party that addresses a pan-european audience, as opposed to a federation of parties trying to coordinate their individual national appeals. The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter
At least in my experience an organisation like the PES was too keen to "be the representative body of the Left in the European parliament" and thus much happier to draw in new members with a broad church approach. Thus, little progress was made on actually developing real Europe wide ideas.
I am pretty skeptical of any pan-European hard left party. They never manage to unite on a national level (too many "-ists" to accomodate), so on a European scale it promises some fun infighting.
Not to mention the irony of the parties that killed the European Constitution and the institutions that could have given them a bigger say in Europe now trying to build that influence in a non existent institutional framework and a rising tide of national selfishness in Europe, triggered precisely by their "non". In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
One member of the executive speculated that at the next European elections, parties would field candidates under the logo of the ELP as well as their own, and possibly exchange candidates across borders.
