Cooperation networks, national policy positions and partisan ideologies: Longitudinal evidence from the Council of the European Union

This study examines cooperation networks among member states’ permanent representations to the European Union. We focus on the effects of similarities between states in their policy positions on specific controversial issues, the ideological orientations of their national governments, and the presence of populist parties in national governments. The analysis examines cooperation networks in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper I), one of the highest-level committees in the Council, in the period 2003-2018. The findings indicate that states with similar policy positions tend to form cooperative relationships, while party ideology indirectly and relatively weakly affects the formation of ties. Surprisingly, the presence of populist parties is unrelated to network evolution. These findings have implications for the extent to which cooperation in the Council is shaped by national democratic processes and European-level structures.