In person icon Multi-Level Contestation: How and Why Do EU Institutions Respond to Euroscepticism?

Abstract

Over the past decades, the European Union (EU) and its policies, along with global governance more generally, have become more politicised and more fundamentally contested. The ‘top-down’ consequences of the EU’s politicisation—including for domestic public opinion and government responsiveness to increasing Euroscepticism—are increasingly well-explored. Yet, although the domestic contestation over European integration has not left EU-level actors unaffected or unconstrained, we still know little about how supranational actors, or national governments in supranational settings, respond to growing domestic contestation over ‘Europe’, and why such responses and coping strategies vary within and across EU institutions and policies. By explaining the specific strategies adopted by EU-level actors to cope with the challenge of increasing levels of Euroscepticism the proposed panel contributes to addressing this gap. All contributors identify bottom-up pressures of politicisation, with a focus on rising levels of Euroscepticism in a crisis-ridden political order, and all papers explain actors’ strategic choices in response to crisis and contestation. Two contributions focus on EU member states’ governments, in the Council of the EU (Hobolt & Wratil), and in intergovernmental crisis decision-making (Schimmelfenning); two contributions zoom in on non-majoritarian institutions, namely the European Central Bank (Lisi & Moschella), and the European Commission (Reh, Bressanelli & Koop). In short, the panel explores, systematises and explains the specific strategies adopted by EU-level actors in response to the challenge of Euroscepticism and, by doing so, aims to contribute to the research agendas on, first, EU public opinion as an explanation of political actors’ behaviour and decision-making, and, second, the changing nature of EU-level governance.

Title	Details
Contestation and Responsiveness in EU Council Deliberations	View Paper Details
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Between Responsibility and Responsiveness: Political Parties and their Support for European Integration	View Paper Details