The role of Europarties in Ukraine : the invisible EU membership facilitator?

This text focuses the cooperation between Europarties and domestic political parties in Ukraine and the aim is to assess the main opportunities and challenges for the Europarties to play a role in Ukraine’s democratic development and its EU-membership aspirations. It first examines the political landscape in Ukraine and the challenges for the Europarties in finding partners in a context of unstable and ‘non-ideological’ political parties. It then considers the incentives for transnational party cooperation among both Europarties and the Ukrainian parties, which are of both instrumental and ideational character. Then it presents an analysis of the historical evolution of the transnational party cooperation. It concludes that the Europarties have so far not had any significant effects on the characteristics of Ukraine’s party system. This can be explained by the competition among Europarties, which has led to a softening of membership criteria. But the Europarties have found an important role in supporting Ukraine’s EU-integration process. With their long experience and wide network among high-level contacts within the EU, the Europarties can help Ukraine in making the necessary reforms and act as an ambassador for Ukraine’s EU-membership aspirations