The European Union as a transnational political space: an introduction

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the European Union is an increasingly dense transnational political space. Political parties are intensifying their transnational cooperation in policy-making at the European level. Foundations and think-tanks organize the exchange of ideas and the transfer of policy concepts across borders. Buisness associations and tradee unions work together and ccordinate theoir responses to comparable globalization pressures. Multinational companies and individual business leaders forge contacts in order to influence the agenda at all levels of governance. More and more non-governmental organizations develop transnational links which are usually more intensive within the European Union, even if they often extend beyond its borders to the wider world.