TY - UNPB
T1 - Central and Eastern Europe in the 2004 European Parliament Elections
T2 - A Not So European Event
AU - Chan, Kenneth
N1 - Funding information:
The work leading to this article was part of the research project “Idealism and Realism in Institutional Choice in Post-Communist Europe. A Comparative Analysis of Electoral Reforms in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia” and has benefited from the support of the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (HKBU 2026/02H). The author gratefully acknowledges the able research assistance of Irena Baclija, Lukáš Linek, Petra Rakušanová and Alpar Zoltan Szasz.
Publisher copyright:
© Sussex European Institute
PY - 2004/11
Y1 - 2004/11
N2 - The first European Parliament elections in the new Member States in Central and Eastern Europe demonstrated a profound paradox in terms of being a feedback process of European integration. At the elite level, the accession to the European Union has offered political parties and their leaders both new opportunities as well as a new set of issues with the emergence of a significant divide over the meanings of European integration. At the mass level, however, the first European Parliament elections were ignored by a vast majority of voters. This paper serves as a systematic analysis of the subject. Our objective is three-fold: to explain a lack of interest in the polls, to examine the domestic political dynamics leading to the elections and to consider the implications of the elections for the workings of the enlarged European Union. As for the prospects for European integration, it is important to note that one may no longer assume a supportive cross-party consensus in the new Member States on the EU. Rather, popular antipathy towards the EU is expected to rise.
AB - The first European Parliament elections in the new Member States in Central and Eastern Europe demonstrated a profound paradox in terms of being a feedback process of European integration. At the elite level, the accession to the European Union has offered political parties and their leaders both new opportunities as well as a new set of issues with the emergence of a significant divide over the meanings of European integration. At the mass level, however, the first European Parliament elections were ignored by a vast majority of voters. This paper serves as a systematic analysis of the subject. Our objective is three-fold: to explain a lack of interest in the polls, to examine the domestic political dynamics leading to the elections and to consider the implications of the elections for the workings of the enlarged European Union. As for the prospects for European integration, it is important to note that one may no longer assume a supportive cross-party consensus in the new Member States on the EU. Rather, popular antipathy towards the EU is expected to rise.
UR - http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sei/publications/seiworkingpapers
M3 - Working paper
T3 - Sussex European Institute Working Papers
SP - 1
EP - 41
BT - Central and Eastern Europe in the 2004 European Parliament Elections
PB - Sussex European Institute
CY - United Kingdom
ER -