The Politicization of the European Union

What are the consequences of EU politicization for the EU and European societies? This book shifts the analytical focus from EU politicization processes to their empirical and normative research on the effects of politicization on public opinion, public discourses, policymaking and European integration

The Politicization of the European Union

What are the consequences of EU politicization for the EU and European societies? This book shifts the analytical focus from EU politicization processes to their empirical and normative research on the effects of politicization on public opinion, public discourses, policymaking and European integration

Parties communicating Europe : investigating why parties communicate on European affairs and how citizens react to these messages

The dissertation investigates the communications of national political parties about European affairs. It seeks to explain when and why parties emphasize Europe and how citizens react to these messages. Building on debates on the politicization of European integration, the relevance of functional and strategic factors is assessed to understand the extent of parties’ emphasis on European affairs. The research first relies on the analysis of an original dataset of messages published on Twitter by parties and their leaders in 10 EU countries from 2009 to 2019. Then, an online survey experiment has been conducted in France and Belgium to assess how citizens react to parties’ messages about Europe. The main results suggest that parties communicate about European affairs both when they are pushed by functional pressure and when they have strategic incentives. However, a comparison of the effect shows that they talk about Europe much more when they have an interest then when they should provide visibility to decision-making processes. Finally, the experiment results unexpectedly suggest that citizens do not react to parties’ cues by adopting more clear-cut opinions about the EU, further research is required to understand how citizens really perceive these messages.(POLS - Sciences politiques et sociales) -- UCL, 202

Tweeting about Brussels? European governance in the communications of national parties and leaders

In this paper, I investigate whether national political parties and leaders communicate about European governance. According to the neo-functionalist argument, I expect them to emphasize European affairs at the time of important European governance events and when they are involved in European decision-making processes. I use a unique longitudinal dataset of nearly 2 million tweets published over eleven years (2009–2019) by 67 political parties and their leaders in 10 western EU member states, to track whether European governance increase emphasis on EU affairs. I find that emphasis on European affairs increases at the time of European elections, referendum, European summits, major speeches of the European Commission president, and plenary sessions of the European Parliament. These results suggest that the exercise of supranational authority does indeed increase its visibility through the communications of political actors. Moreover, these findings have normative implications, as visibility is the first key requirement for the accountability of European governance

Covariance. A first step in the analysis of the relationship between two variables

Dictionnary entry on covarianc

Eurosceptic or Euro-ambivalent? Eurocrisis and citizens’ attitudes of continental and Southern Europe towards European integration and the Euro.

Have European citizens become increasingly Eurosceptic during the Euro crisis and thereafter more politicized, turning their backs on European integration? Though many journalists, politicians and academics argue that they have, this paper suggests that reactions to European integration cannot be reduced uniquely to a rise in Euroscepticism, but that ambivalence need also to be brought into the picture when studying citizens’ attitudes towards the EU and the Euro. As the enhanced politicization of the European integration has marked the EU post-Maastricht development and particularly the last European elections held in 2014, this text aims at understanding how the Euro crisis and the (macro) politicization that followed has impacted on the acceptance and the appropriation of the political order by lay citizens. This article draws on evidence from survey data collected in May 2014 (CED-EU14; Sauger & al., 2015), just two weeks after European elections, that includes seven countries from continental and Southern Europe: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The article proposes regression analyses of this non-polarized category of citizens that consider their country membership and the Euro as neither a good nor a bad thing. It concludes that alongside the well-documented phenomenon of Euroscepticism, one also observes reinforcement in the indecision of ordinary citizens over the last decade. These ambivalent positions reveal differences with hard Euroscepticism and Europhilia; both in terms of support for EU membership and support for the Euro currency

€philes ou €sceptiques ? Les attitudes des citoyens européens à l’égard de l’Union économique et monétaire et de la monnaie unique

La question du soutien des citoyens à la monnaie unique européenne est cruciale. La nature même de l’euro rend sa légitimité et son existence dépendantes du niveau de soutien politique et populaire dont il bénéficie. De plus, dans un contexte marqué par la crise économique récente, les questions de la légitimité et de l’avenir même de la monnaie unique sont devenues particulièrement saillantes. Face à ce constat, il est étonnant de noter que peu de travaux se sont attelés à l’étude des attitudes des citoyens à l’égard de l’euro. L’objectif de cet article est donc de combler ce manque. Il entend étudier le niveau de soutien des citoyens à l’euro et son évolution dans le temps, ainsi qu’identifier les facteurs permettant d’expliquer ce soutien. Pour ce faire, les trois approches théoriques classiques expliquant le soutien des citoyens à l’intégration européenne en général sont considérées : l’approche utilitariste, l’approche identitaire et l’approche des proxies. Ceci différencie ce travail de la majorité des études existantes qui considèrent uniquement les facteurs économiques pour expliquer le soutien à l’euro. Les données de l’enquête Eurobaromètre de mai 2017 sont mobilisées afin de tester ces trois approches. Les résultats des modèles de régression logistique soulignent la pertinence de ces trois courants théoriques pour expliquer le soutien des citoyens à la monnaie unique. De plus, il est intéressant de noter que les mécanismes du soutien ne sont pas totalement similaires si l’on compare les individus dans la zone euro avec ceux qui n’en font pas partie. Enfin, l’analyse longitudinale confirme que la crise a eu un effet différencié sur le soutien des citoyens européens en fonction de leur appartenance ou non à la zone euro. Au sein de celle-ci, le soutien à l’Union économique et monétaire et à l’euro reste élevé malgré la crise économique et monétaire