An embryonic party system is developing at the European level along with a steady increase in the powers of the European Parliament, the only supranational assembly in the world to be elected by direct universal suffrage. For national parties, this raises the question of their integration within this transnational party system. In addition, in the absence of any real European electoral campaign, European elections since 1979 have always appeared to be little more than the sum total of a number of national elections. This integration, which is seen in affiliations to European political parties and to the corresponding groupings in the European Parliament, has historically been much more complex in France for the right than for the left.