Pros And Cons Of Euroscepticism

A third category of Eurosceptic party opposed to the EU are Left-wing parties (to the left of the mainstream left) who are opposed to the neo-liberal direction in which European integration is progressing and who believe that the EU is increasingly being run as a capitalist club on behalf of capitalists (see Milner 2004). Such parties have enjoyed quite significant electoral success in recent years, deploying an alternative vision of a more social Europe with a clearer global vision. Parties such as the Danish Socialist People’s Party - SocialistiskFolkeparti, The Left - Die Linke- in Germany, The Left party – Vänsterpartiet - in Sweden and the Left Block - Bloco de Esquerda ‐ in Portugal are becoming increasingly established parties within

The result is indirect burden on the government expenditure to provide facilities and un-employment benefits to its own national. This has enraged and provided U.K with one other significant reason to oppose the membership of European Union apart from the traditional argument on the loss of parliament sovereignty as observed by various academics and philosophers. Public Opinion as conducted through Euro barometer resulted in a number of studies which displayed the shaken and increased negativity of public opinion post-Maastricht with regard to attitudes towards the EU, (see Gabel 1998, 2000; Van der Eijk& Franklin 1996). It has become clear that opposition and discomfort towards the EU have become increasingly embedded among a growing number of European citizens across the EU and in certain member states along with other candidate countries. Based on the much surveys it is apparent that negative attitudes towards the EU have not only increased in countries with traditionally high levels of Euroscepticism such as the UK and Denmark, but also in the major founding countries (Germany and France), in traditionally Europhile nations such as Ireland and the Netherlands and in CEE countries who joined in 2002 such as Poland and the

Prior to Maastricht Eurosceptic MEPs remained largely unattached or in informal groupings such as the Rainbow Group. After the 1994 European election we witness the emergence of the soft Eurosceptic grouping Union for Europe which became the Europe of Nations group for the duration of the two parliaments between 1999 and 2009. The Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities (a hard Eurosceptic group) emerges in 1999 which is relaunched as the Independence/Democracy Group in 2004. In terms of Left-wing Eurosceptic groups the Confederal Group of the European United Left emerges in 1994 and has developed steadily since both in terms of numbers and influence. In February 2007 Radical Right MEPs set up a short-lived and ill-fated transnational group Identity Tradition Sovereignty, which disbanded in November the same year, comprising MEPs from seven countries including the French FN and the Austrian FPO. Although the group was short-lived and ill-fated (see Startin 2010) it nevertheless illustrated the potential for transnational cooperation around the theme of Euroscepticism from the most unlikely ideological bedfellows. The 2009 European elections