European People’s Party and United National Movement: Transnational Party Cooperation and the Europeanization of Georgia

Abstract

This article examines the transnational cooperation between the European People’s Party (EPP) and the United National Movement (UNM) as a critical lens through which to understand the party-level dimension of Georgia’s Europeanization. Building on the wider context of Europarties’ role in shaping political norms and integration trajectories beyond the European Union, the study addresses the existing research gap concerning the interaction between European and Georgian political parties and its implications for domestic transformation. The central objective is to analyze how affiliation with the EPP has influenced the UNM’s ideological orientation, organizational development, political legitimacy, and external positioning in the European arena. Relying on qualitative analysis, the article examines official statements, party documents, secondary academic literature, and key political events, particularly the post-2008 geopolitical context, which marked a decisive turning point in UNM-EPP relations. The findings demonstrate that transnational party cooperation has functioned as a mechanism of external validation, elite socialization, and norm diffusion, while simultaneously exposing tensions between partisan loyalty and broader EU policy objectives. The study concludes that Europarty engagement constitutes an important, though often inconsistent, driver of Europeanization in non-EU states, constrained by domestic political polarization, institutional fragility, and personalized leadership structures. These insights contribute to broader debates on informal channels of European influence and suggest that more structured, principle-based cooperation could enhance democratic consolidation and reinforce Georgia’s European trajectory.