This thesis examines the content of the manifestos presented by the Swedish political parties prior to the election of the European Parliament in 2009. The purpose is to reveal whether the political parties’ pledges are politically relevant according to the European Parliament’s decision-making competence. The definition of political relevance is based on Mair’s two channels of representation: the European channel (the European Parliament) and the national channel (directly, national parliaments, or indirectly, national governments and the Council of the European Union). The political issues have been divided based on where they are decided: at a national level, a European level, or a divided competence between the two. In addition, a fourth category has been created containing miscellaneous issues with pledges that cannot be placed in any of the three existing categories. The result from the national manifestos has been compared with the manifestos presented by five of the European parliamentary groups. The consequent comparison is an indicator and measurement of the Swedish manifestos’ level of political relevance.

A quantitative content analysis was used to identify the pledges and to discern the frequency of politically relevant pledges, enabling comparisons both at a national level and between the national and the European levels. The result supported the originally stated hypothesis, saying that the majority of the election pledges presented prior to the election of the European Parliament in 2009 was politically irrelevant.