Summary
Based on an analysis of debates on the future of Europe in 11 national parliaments and the European Parliament between 2015-2021, our study demonstrates three key developments. First, national debates are driven primarily by specific issues relevant for local constituencies and are linked to concrete crises confronting the local populations; national debates are structured by national political conflicts. Second, national debates on the future of Europe focus little on polity aspects of reforms in favour of European integration; partisan voices rarely display coherent and detailed visions of integration. Third, apart from typical ways of narrating the future of Europe in terms of intergovernmental or federal visions, a new and prominent sovereignist narrative linking former Euro-reject positions with strong Euroscepticism is on the rise in almost all the contexts we studied.
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What political actors say about the future of the European Union:
The views from national and European parliaments
Magdalena Góra, Elodie Thevenin, and Katarzyna Zielińska
