Abstract
The objective of this thesis is two-fold: first, to determine how parties get elected to the
European Parliament (EP); second, how they vote, once in power. I compare two founding
member states (France and the Netherlands) to two newer ones (Poland and Hungary). In order
to investigate the degree of disconnection between public opinion and the votes of these
countries’ delegates, I measure the former through the so-called Eurobarometer surveys. I count
the bills voted on, broken down by political party for the time between May 2014 and March
2016.