This paper aims to advance European integration research by exploring the emotional appeal of political myths in day-to-day EU politics with a special focus on the reception and reproduction of myths among pan-European Union non-governmental organisations. For the purpose of this paper, I investigates myths associated with the ‘EUROPE 2020: A European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’, adopted in early 2010. What makes Europe 2020 especially interesting for this study is that it draws upon and feed into a number of myths about European integration including ‘green Europe’ and ‘social Europe’. The paper argues that (1) pan-EU NGOs are indeed receptive to political myths, also in the short term, (2) pan-EU NGOs contributes to the reproduction of myths, especially already institutionalised myths and those myth particularly relevant for their sectoral activities and (3) in this process pan-EU NGOs strategically use political myths to justify their policy positions.
