European policy

Abstract

The issue of European integration caused significant divisions in the Conservative Party when it was last in power in the 1990s and these contributed to the party’s general election drubbing in 1997. In opposition, the Conservatives became more Eurosceptic as European integration deepened, but the party leadership also enjoyed some success in both detoxifying the issue and managing internal dissent. With the Conservatives back in office, in a coalition government with the pro-European Liberal Democrats, the European issue is posing problems once more. Ideological differences between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are more pronounced on Europe than on most other issues. The Conservatives are a ‘soft’ Eurosceptic party (Taggart and Szczerbiack, 2008: 247-8) that supports membership of the European Union (EU) but opposes key areas of integration such as Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the extension of EU competence in social policy justice and home affairs, and foreign and security policy.