Naval-Gazing or Border-Crossing? Reflections on the Potential of Transnational Party Cooperation in European Security and Defence

The launch of the Permanent Structured Cooperation on security and defence (PESCO) in November 2017 has once again put the question on the table of who democratically “controls” EU military operations and troops. Problematically, while party groups in the national parliaments seem likely to be most concerned with national troops, party groups in the European Parliament have little formal ability in EU defence. In other words, whereas EU military cooperation advances, cooperation between political parties in the EU to politically scrutinise and contest it seems to run the risk of lagging behind. There is some research that suggests that parties from the same European party family tend to adopt similar policies on security and defence, but very little is known about actual transnational activities of national parties – let alone of Members of Parliament (MPs). The first part of this paper therefore presents qualitative data on transnational party cooperation in the area of EU security and defence. It includes data both from a “bottom-up” and “top-down” perspective, as it presents findings from interviews with officials of the European parties, and from interviews with party officials, party group staff and Members of Parliament at the German Bundestag. The German parties are presented as a most-likely case for transnational cooperation. Based on this exploratory research and building on some of the theories about political parties and party politics, in the second part of the paper I put forward some expectations about the potential of transnational party cooperation in European Security and Defense, and about the form(s) that such cooperation is likely to take.