The Left and the European Constitution

From Laeken to Lisbon

Edited by Michael Holmes, Knut Roder

Publication date:

01 January 2012

Length of book:

256 pages

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Dimensions:

234x156mm

ISBN-13: 9780719080838

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

This book examines how the Left is affected by European integration. It starts from the rejection of the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands in 2005, in which left-wing parties played key roles. The book explores the level of pro- and anti-EU sentiment among left-wing parties. It discusses the left’s reaction to the EU’s neo-liberal policies such as Laval, the Lisbon Agenda and the Bolkestein Directive. It examines the extent to which parties are Europeanised or remain nationally-oriented. The book looks 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.

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. Tània 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 Lödén
11. The Hungarian Left and the European integration process: the bittersweet success of ‘return to Europe’. Attila Ágh
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