Parties in European Parliament Elections: Issues, Framing, the EU, and the Question of Supply and Demand

Based on the content of European Election manifestos, the article shows that parties play an important role in presenting to the people a European view on issues, in discussing transnational and the core EU issues and in offering the voters different choices on the EU and European integration. While there is a greater variance of party positions on the left–right dimension than on the pro-/anti-EU dimension, most party systems nevertheless provide good choice options on the EU dimension as well. Compared to the ‘old EU’, party systems in the accession countries offer a greater variance in programmatic pro-anti-EU positions.