Left and the European Constitution From Laeken to Lisbon

This book examines how left-wing parties are being affected by European integration. It does so by concentrating on the left-wing responses to the Treaty of Lisbon and the European Constitutional Treaty. Both treaties were rocked by No votes in referendums, and left-wing parties played crucial roles in these. In France, the Socialists and the Greens both had to deal with sharp internal disputes on the issues, while in the Netherlands the Labour Party and the Socialist Party were on opposite sides. The book examines this from a broad left perspective, looking at parties from all three left-wing families - social democrats, left-socialists and left-greens. It contains case-studies of eleven EU member states, and also examines the left in the European Parliament. It provides a unique cross-national, cross-party evaluation of contemporary events. The book shows a steady move amongst all left-wing parties to a more pro-European position. This is most pronounced with the social democrats, but it is also evident among left-greens and left socialists. However, that more pro-European sentiment is offset by considerable disagreement about the current direction of the EU. The increasingly neo-liberal slant of the EU - epitomized by the Laval judgement, the Lisbon Agenda, and the Bolkestein Directive, all of which are discussed in the book - caused extensive disagreement among left-wing parties. Third, the book also shows that politics for left-wing parties remains strongly national in its orientation. It is the national political arena and electorate that dominates their outlook.

Preface: The Left and the European Constitution from Laeken to Lisbon, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann 1. The Left from Laeken to Lisbon. Michael Holmes and Knut Roder 2. Left parties at the EU level: Influencing the Convention. Simon Lightfoot 3. The Yes-No dichotomy of the French Left. Sally Marthaler 4. The Dutch Left and European integration: Framing the Constitutional debate. Robert Harmsen 5. Left parties and the European Constitution in Spain: Building and contesting Europe from a federalist perspective. Tania Verge 6. The German Left from Laeken to Lisbon. Knut Roder 7. The Left in Italy and the Lisbon Treaty: A 'political' Europe, a 'social' Europe and an 'economic' Europe. Lucia Quaglia 8. The British Left and the institutional reform of the EU. Mike Mannin 9. The Danish Left and the Constitutional/Lisbon Treaty: Not so sceptical after all?Rasmus Leander Nielsen and Rasmus Brun Pedersen 10. The Swedish Left and European integration: Linking Laval and Lisbon. Lee Miles and Hans Loden 11. The Hungarian Left and the European integration process: the bittersweet success of 'return to Europe'. Attila Agh 12. From a spectator to a player to the bench: the Left in Slovakia from Laeken to Lisbon. Tim Haughton and Vladimir Bilcik 13. The Polish Left and the European Constitution. Nathaniel Copsey 14. The Left and European integration beyond Lisbon. Michael Holmes and Knut Roder