European Journal of Political Research 43(1): 29-50.
In this paper voting records of the EU’s Council of Ministers are analysed. Governments’ voting patterns are assumed to be partly affected by national and partly by EU-level factors. The results support the view that the political space of EU is defined by two dimensions: the traditional left-right dimension and the independence vs. integration dimension. In general, left-wing governments tend to vote less against the Council majority than their right-wing counterparts. However, if the government is a strong supporter of increased integration, its position on the left-right dimension does not matter much. All other things being equal, ‘pro’ integration governments are the least likely to raise their voice against the Council majority. However, considerable differences are found among ‘eurosceptical’ parties. Of these, right-wing governments are the most active ‘no’ voters. In addition, large countries are more likely to vote ‘no’ than smaller countries. During the time they hold the presidency, governments take the role of arbitrator and vote less against the majority in the Council than otherwise.
The data used in the analysis is available here in STATA format. And here is the command file (in STATA's "do" format) that reproduces the results. Finally, here are some explanations of the variables in the data set.