Understanding Enlargement: discourses in six countries

Introduction: Enlargement of the European Union involves a process of asymmetric intergovernmental negotiations, in which the candidate state negotiates how and when it would adopt the rules of the Union (Avery/Cameron, 1998: 31-33). Accession negotiations have been part of the EU’s development since its inception and especially in the last three decades have been almost a continuous process: the fifth enlargement of the EU took place between 1998, when the first seven of the group of twelve candidates began negotiating for membership with the EU, and 2007 when the last two of the second group, Bulgaria and Romania, joined the Union. The ‘Eastern’ or ‘big bang’ enlargement did not mark the end of the process of EU expansion: the next candidate, Croatia, was already negotiating and joined in 2013, followed by Serbia and Montenegro, negotiating at the time of writing. Negotiations with Turkey have been resumed and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has the status of a candidate, ready to start

Public-elite gap on European integration: the missing link between discourses among citizens and elites in Serbia

This article explores the relationship between elite and citizen discourses on European integration. We argue that imperfections in cue-making and cue-taking lead to a gap between elite and citizen discourses, especially in societies experiencing major changes. To investigate this, we use newly collected data from Serbia shortly after the delayed start of accession negotiations in 2014. Using vignettes for different citizen discourses, we coded statements collected from major Serbian newspapers. The analysis shows that citizen discourses found in previous research are all represented in the media. We also find that approximately one fourth of media content does not fit any of the citizen discourses in Serbia. This gap confirms our hypothesis and demonstrates that elite ‘communicative’ discourses are not well linked to citizen discourses, leading to politically important imperfections

Replication Data for Public-Elite Gap on European Integration: The missing link between discourses among citizens and elites in Serbia

This data set contains the coded media statements from the Serbia newspapers Politika en Danas, which are used in this paper

What do citizens want? And why does it matter? Discourses among citizens as opportunities and constraints for EU enlargement

This article examines the role of citizens’ discourses as constraints and opportunities for future enlargements. Public opinion is an increasingly important factor influencing EU’s integration capacity. When governments’ decisions on enlargement are challenged in referenda, the credibility of the EU’s promise is diminished and integration capacity is negatively affected. We take a discursive institutionalist approach that focuses on citizens’ perceptions and understandings of enlargement expressed in several discourses in each member state. We argue that political élites can turn to citizen discourses to identify conditions under which enlargement would be acceptable to citizens. Identifying empirically citizen discourses in two old and two more recent member states, we find discourses supportive to enlargement, constraining discourses and a third group that would approve of enlargement but under certain conditions. Examining these conditions we find that to increase integration capacity, enlargement policy needs to be objective, to involve citizens in the member states and to promote better governance in candidate states.Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)320115Security and Global Affair