Party Attitudes Towards the EU in the Member States : Parties for Europe, Parties against Europe

In a moment where the EU is facing an important number of challenges, there is growing interest in understanding how parties influence the way Europe evolves as a political issue, notably how parties structure domestic competition over European issues and they mobilise sentiments in referenda over European integration .

This book examines the views of national parties towards the European Union and the different facets of a supranational citizenship. It provides an in-depth investigation into the variations to the cross-national patterns in ten countries, including old and new member states and different EU regions. Using original and innovative concepts, data and research techniques the authors:

• Explore whether parties formulate specific positions and preferences on the most particular aspects of the EU process.
• Investigate whether the party’s stance could be inserted into more pro-European, or more Eurosceptical attitudes.
• Illustrate patterns of party contestation of the EU issues in the member states and explains these patterns in the light of the main theoretical arguments.

Making an important contribution to party attitudes towards the EU and the Europeanisation of party politics, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, sociology, comparative politics, government and party politics