| Summary: | Research on the party politics of the EU has grown substantially in the last three decades, however important gaps remain in our understanding of the internal workings of EU partisan actors. Three new books shed light on this neglected dimension. Employing thorough qualitative, participatory and historical research methods, these books open the ‘black box’ of transnational European party politics by analyzing the networks, connections and practices of partisan actors in the European Parliament. The findings of the books demonstrate the highly informal, but no less important, influence party politics exert on the functioning and policy outputs of EU institutions. The implication for future research is that party politics must be taken seriously in EU studies, particularly by acknowledging the importance of informality, networks and norms that lie behind formal institutional settings and procedures.
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