An Analysis Of The Influence Of Party Groups In The European Parliament On EU Decision-making

Party Groups in the European Parliament are important actors in the multi-level governance of European Union,exerting more and more influence on EU decision-making.Theoretically,party groups are formed on the basis of similar ideologies instead of same nationality,as a result of which established party groups carry out parliamentary activities around their political inclinations;party groups are directly elected by European citizens,the introduction of such a representative democratic system into EU has increased the legitimacy of EU decision-making.In real practice,the influence of party groups in European Parliament on EU decision-making is two-folded:the influence of activities of a single party group on EU policy agenda,the content of policy proposal and the policy result and the influence of the internal struggle among party groups on the general direction of EU decision-making.This paper firstly analyzes the characteristics of decision-making mechanism under EU multi-level governance and introduces the main decision organs and decision procedures.Among the main decision organs,this paper examines in detail the power balance and coordination among the European Parliament,the European Committee and the Council of the European Union.Among the decision procedures,this paper analyzes the process of the most commonly used co-decision procedure(Lisbon Treaty renames it as the common legislative procedure).This paper summarizes the main channels through which a single party group influence EU decision-making:influencing agenda-setting of the European Committee through lobbying,advocating and proposing to the European Committee in the policy-forming phase;influencing the opinion of the European Committee and the Council of the European Union in the phase of drafting and reviewing act and influencing the final result through vetoing a proposed act.Apart from the influence of a single party group,the result of EU policy-making is usually influenced by the interactions among party groups.Party groups in European Parliament are divided politically along"Left-Right" line.Party groups will compete or form alliance with one another due to ideological divergence or convergence.Competition among party groups usually pulls the policy making towards the middle ground.Alliances among party groups decides whether the legislative resolution can be passed.This paper also makes a case study of the legislation on "establishing a European Network of Employment Services" and "China's market economy status" to evaluate the influence of party groups in EU internal and external affairs.This paper tries to look at EU's decision-making at party groups level and by that to enrich the understanding of EU's multi-level governance,especially its supranational governance,to further examine the party group system as a practice of transnational democracy and to facilitate the party communication between our country and the European Union.