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This ground-breaking, state-of-the-art book provides the first comprehensive review of Euroscepticism in contemporary European politics. Leading scholars address the strength and breadth of Euroscepticism across a range of EU member and candidate states, and draw out comparative lessons on the nature of political parties, party systems, and the domestic politics of European integration. - ;The project of European integration now spans Europe, but in becoming bigger and broader the European Union has brought on itself significant criticism. As the EU becomes deeper, wider, and more ambitious, s

After the 2019 European Parliament (EP) election, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party grouping experienced a major change in its representation and leadership, with the wholescale departure of its core British Conservative MEPs. Yet the ECR remained an important and coherent transnational party federation in Strasbourg, acting as a strong voice for conservatism in Europe as distinct from Christian Democracy and the radical right. With large numbers of MEPs from Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party within the grouping, there was also much continuity with policies that were opposed to 'ever closer union', in favour of business and the single market and also of the wider role of the USA and NATO in international relations. Often written off as merely a 'Eurosceptic' faction, the start of the 2019-2024 EP session saw the grouping consolidate its influence and profile in EU affairs as a distinctive right-of-centre party in the Hemicycle.

After the 2019 European Parliament (EP) election, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party grouping experienced a major change in its representation and leadership, with the wholescale departure of its core British Conservative MEPs. Yet the ECR remained an important and coherent transnational party federation in Strasbourg, acting as a strong voice for conservatism in Europe as distinct from Christian Democracy and the radical right. With large numbers of MEPs from Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party within the grouping, there was also much continuity with policies that were opposed to 'ever closer union', in favour of business and the single market and also of the wider role of the USA and NATO in international relations. Often written off as merely a 'Eurosceptic' faction, the start of the 2019–2024 EP session saw the grouping consolidate its influence and profile in EU affairs as a distinctive right-of-centre party in the Hemicycle.

This paper examines the link between recent EU crises and the development of party-based Euroscepticism across Europe. It draws on data from expert surveys with qualitative data to outline the way in which we can empirically see the link between the impacts of the crises in European states, and how far, and in what ways, Euroscepticism has been mobilized by political parties in those states. It identifies four main frames through which the EU is contested in European states which focus on: economic factors, immigration, democracy/sovereignty and national factors. It also shows that there has been a clear difference between the impacts of the different crises. While the Eurozone crisis had a particularly powerful effect in the party systems of those countries most affected by the bailout packages and the migration crisis had a particularly strong effect on party politics in the post-communist states of central Europe, Brexit has had a very limited impact on national party politics, although this may change in the longer-term.

The focus of the article is to use the changed landscape of Euroscepticism to look broadly across a set of cases of government participation by parties holding Eurosceptical positions to examine whether government participation has an effect on their European positions and whether participation by Eurosceptic parties in government has had an effect on their European policy. In general, while there does seem to be a moderating effect of government participation on a party's Euroscepticism, there are notable cases of Eurosceptic party participation in government having some discernible impact on policy, but under somewhat specific conditions. The impact is clearly different for major and minor parties and, in the case of the latter, moderating their Euroscepticism is often a signifier of a wider process of party mainstreaming. In some cases, while parties continue to use Eurosceptic rhetoric when in office, this does not appear to translate into substantial policy change. Adapted from the source document.

If one seeks it out, one can find limited evidence of EU influences, but in general terms EU accession has had little significant direct impact on Polish party politics. Moreover, there is no obvious linear relationship between party positions on European integration and the extent to which the EU impinged upon a party and the nature of that impact, although it appears to have been greatest in those parties that were members of the large European party federations and EP groupings. In many ways, 'Europe' appears to have been assimilated successfully into the logic of Polish domestic party politics. Adapted from the source document.

Despite the fact that almost all Poles are Roman Catholics and that religion has played an important part in contemporary Polish politics, no self-declared Christian Democratic party has been successful in post-1989 Poland. None of the currently successful Polish centre—right parties profile themselves as Christian Democratic, nor can they be labelled as such objectively. While, superficially, Poland looks like fertile ground for Christian Democracy, the factors that were crucial to the formation and success of Christian Democratic parties in post-war Western Europe were largely absent during the emergence of democratic, multiparty politics in post-1989 Poland. Of course, parties are never simply produced and sustained by `cleavages', they are more than institutional responses to some kind of social demand. The formation and success, or otherwise, of Christian Democratic parties owes much to the interplay between social realities and sponsors, on the one hand, and the institutional and ideological crafting of entrepreneurial politicians, on the other.