Europeanization of political parties that represent nationalistic, regional and ethnoregional interests in the “old” and “new” Europe

The aim of the article is to present how European integration influences nationalistic, regional, and ethnoregional parties (top-down Europeanization) and how these types of national parties influence Europe and what structures they form to influence the decisionmaking process of the European Union (bottom-down Europeanization). The article is divided into three parts. The first part characterizes the phenomenon of Europeanization of political parties. It also attempts at defining nationalistic, regional, and ethnoregional parties. The second part presents the attitude of such parties towards European integration and factors that influence it. The parties were divided into nationalistic parties that represent the domineering nation, and parties of preferential nationalism. The third part of the article discusses institutionalisation of the cooperation of parties of preferential nationalism on the European level, taking into consideration cooperation in the European Parliament (Greens/ EFA fraction) and non-Parliamentarian organization – European Free Alliance (EFA)