Euopeanism and euroscepticism

More than three years have passed since former British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a much acknowledged and controversial speech on 23rd January 2013, in respect to the British relationship with the European Union. Europe and the European Union (EU) are now, of course, facing different challenges than three years ago. The contrasting national and transnational identities which emerge in the so-called Bloomberg Speech (BS) imply a nationalistic body politics which constructs the United Kingdom and England as separate entities contrasted to “the continent”, i.e. Europe. Hence, BS oscillates between two extremes, in its attempt to alternatively observe maximum distance to the EU and some proximity to its economic policies. Moreover, both the topoi of urgency and threat/danger are appealed to – warning the EU that it would suffer under the loss of the United Kingdom; but also warning British voters that Brexit would damage their future and prosperity. This speech can be perceived as the starting point for the referendum on June 23rd, 2016 – which resulted in a tiny majority wanting to leave the EU (‘Brexit’). Of course, there is no clear causal connection between BS and Brexit; but many arguments of the “remain and leave campaigns” can be traced to the BS; as well as the huge ambivalence framing Cameron’s position towards the EU.

The outcome of the Brexit referendum is the apex of a long history of Euro-British relationships characterised by two opposing but coexisting stereotypes. On the one hand, England appears as the freedom-seeking nation resisting restrictive collective policies imposed by a totalitarian EU regime of faceless Brussels bureaucrats. On the other hand, England seems to resurrect its imperialistic superiority against the purported democracy and horizontality of European institutions. Adopting the notion of “cultural intimacy”—with which Michael Herzfeld analyzes the mutual engagement of contrasting positions in political and administrative practices—this paper addresses the equally stereotypical images of an indifferent, inhuman European bureaucracy and of an insular, cynical Great Britain in the works of Malcolm Bradbury and Tim Parks. Be it the allegedly liberal yet nationalistic stance of Thatcherist anti-Europeanism in Bradbury, or the British disaffection with the purported identitarian and cultural levelling within the common borders of the Schengen area and of the single currency, both authors’ symbolic constructions of European institutions and of British Euroscepticism are built as cultural entanglements of these two realities, and show the need to overcome the reductive conception of Europe as a failed super-state.

The most important current issue for both the European Union and Member States is the economic crisis and its implications for the future of the EU. Citizens across Member States of the EU, whether affected or not by the debt crisis and austerity measures, are progressively losing trust in their national governments. The political impact is profound: untimely end of governments, re-structuring of party landscapes, unpredicted and unpredictable electoral results, mass protests – are but a few examples.  Overall, citizens across the EU are increasingly sceptical of the EU’s ability to work out efficient mechanisms to deal with the worst crisis since the Union’s inception.
The overarching theoretical question is to what extent representation is tied to the EU(-ro) crisis/ failure. What types of representation/ democracy should the EU be focusing on? Closely linked to this lies the recurring question of the democratic legitimacy of the EU in light of the so-called “democratic deficit(s)” , the policymaking power of an unelected (technocratic) bureaucracy, its concomitant elitism and abstract detachment from regional concerns.
The volume will engage broadly in addressing the tensions created between national vs. EU level of government and the resulting issues, while not neglecting an EU perspective on the matter. The volume is not designed to address questions related to Eurozone countries only but the entire of the EU.
Thus, the essays in this collection intend to explore issues pertaining to democratic legitimization in European politics intrinsically woven together: the monetary union and the debt crisis/ economic growth, constitutionalism, European integration (and disintegration), European federalism vs regionalism, Euroscepticism and the British question, the limits of political participation and active citizenship, EU and Globalization.
It is important to emphasize that the volume is expected to address the various concerns/problems/pathologies threatening the future of the EU, not only on the basis of contemporary contingencies and temporary factors, but also those affecting its future development and growth.


List of Contents:
Preface, Introduction
The EU: An Ever deeper Democratic Deficit? Reconsidering Democratic Legitimacy
Kyriakos Demetriou, University of Cyprus

1 EU Democratic Deficit(s) and Legitimacy; System vs Sub-System Level
Alexander Katsaitis, School of Public Policy, University College London

2 Suspending democracy? The role of unelected bodies in the governance of the EU economic crisis. Diego Gionnone, Department of Political Sciences “Jean Monnet” of the Second University of Naples (Italy)

3 Pushing the Union forward? The role of the European Parliament in the Union crisis Fernanda Neutel- Department of Political Science and International Relations- University Lusófona- Lisbon

4 Economy and monetary union:
Mark Baimbridge, University of Bradford, UK

5 Foreign and Defence Policy and Legitimacy
Nicola Chelotti, University College London, Dept of Political Science, n.chelotti@ucl.ac.uk
6 Britain and Europe: a model of permanent crisis?
Simon Usherwood, University of Surrey, s.usherwood@surrey.ac.uk

7 Divided Europe? Euroscepticism in East Central and Southern Europe
José M. Magone,  Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin, jose.magone@hwr-berlin.de

8 Defeating Nationalism in Europe: Voting mechanisms for highly integrated economics
Gerhard Hanappi, University of Technology Vienna, hanappi@econ.tuwien.ac.at

9 The Brussels volcano- Toward post-national political Behaviors in the European Public Sphere?  Xavier Carpentier-Tanguy, Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe, Luxembourg, xavier.carpentier-tanguy@cvce.eu

10 The ‘reluctant hegemon’: Germany in the EU’s post-crisis constellation
Christian Schweiger, Durham University; christian.schweiger@durham.ac.uk

11 European Union in the globalized world
Fritz Breuss, Jean Monnet Professor für wirtschaftliche Aspekte der Europäischen Integration, Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

12 Review essay of Habermas’ Zur Verfassung Europas: Ein Essay (2011) Review essay of Habermas’ Zur Verfassung Europas: Ein Essay (2011)
Gulshan Khan, Gulshan.Khan@nottingham.ac.uk

Recent scholarly work has underlined the importance of being cautious about the notion of Euro-skepticism by putting the stress on alternative concepts and measures. This theoretical and empirical contribution has enriched the debate on support for Europe and its potential multidimensionality. However, the fit between theoretical conceptualization and measured attitudes is still under-investigated. Do European citizens actually express different types of support? To what extent are these attitudes as structured as we think? This paper investigates the different dimensions that individuals associate with " support for Europe " and whether it varies across national context. We test the empirical validity of three conceptualizations of support for Europe: (a) diffuse versus specific support, (b) identity versus diffuse support, (c) static versus dynamic perception of the European Union. To investigate these patterns, we relied on survey data from Eurobarometer. Methodologically, we use item-response theory modelling. This paper demonstrates that attitudes towards Europe are structured but in a less fine-grained manner than hypothesized in the literature. The distinction between diffuse and specific support is robust at the European scale as well as within each national context. Consequently, we provide an empirical tool to comparatively measure support in all member states. However it is not the case for the other dimensions of support, especially identity, and we advocate caution in using this variable as an explanatory variable.

Cilj rada jest prikazati razne vrste euroskepticizma koje postoje, kao i njegove uzroke u Hrvatskoj te općenito u Europi. Osim toga u radu se prikazuju razlike u euroskepticizmu s lijeve i desne strane političkog spektra. Pritom se kod lijevog euroskepticizma ističu teme kao što su obrana Europe rada spram Europe kapitala, protivljenje neoliberalizmu i globalizaciji te teza o odnosu periferije i centra (pri čemu je periferija izložena izrabljivanju), dok se kod desnog euroskepticizma ističu teme protivljenja centralizaciji Europske unije, multikulturalizmu i globalizmu, te zaštita nacionalnih i kulturnih posebnosti. Kroz rad su također analizirani i uzroci euroskepticizma, euroskeptični akteri u Hrvatskoj (političke stranke, religijske skupine i civilno društvo), kao i perspektiva euroskepticizma u budućnosti s obzirom na izazove s kojima se Europska unija suočava od svog nastanka, a posebice kroz zadnja dva desetljeća.

The contemporary phenomenon of euroscepticism prevalent among members of the Polish right can be read as
a self-colonization narrative according to which European integration is nothing short of yet another attempt to
colonize Poland. According to this view, the integration
promoted by a pro-Europe elite suffering from symptoms
of postcolonial syndrome has had negative repercussions
for the economic and social spheres. This is not the first
time that postcolonial theory has been co-opted by rightwing journalists, politicians and scholars (namely, by acolytes of the Law and Justice party) to critique the transformation period, the elite, and the people of the “Third
Polish Republic.” Much of this rhetoric can be traced back
to Ewa Thompson, professor of comparative literature
and Slavic studies at Rice University in Houston. In her
research, Thompson uses postcolonial theory to think
about Poland’s historical legacy. A number of actions inconsistent with the nationalist and conservative vision
(in particular, the rejection of the conspiracy theory that
the Smoleńsk catastrophe was an assassination attempt)
have been seized as solid evidence that their political adversaries are motivated by a postcolonial mentality. To
speak more generally, the pro-European political elite are
portrayed as turncoats who have betrayed the essence of
Polishness at the service of Western nations. Meanwhile,
run-of-the-mill proponents of European integration are
portrayed as “sheeples”, who must be rescued from their
own ignorance and emancipated. What is more, this interpretation of European integration has also permeated
social groups that would ordinarily be prone to pro-European attitudes – namely, urban university students.
Theorists of euroscepticism have drawn a distinction between “hard” euroscepticism (represented by an actual
desire for Poland to secede from the European Union or
reject the EU’s core policies) and “soft” euroscepticism
(the belief that national interest is in natural conflict with
the EU’s current trajectory of development, a resistance
to integration in specific spheres, and hostility toward extensive integration and the idea of a “federal” Europe.)

This booklet contains the thoughts, remarks, experiences, questions and suggestions of the restorative facilitators and some of the participants of the international project "Restorative Circles for Citizens of Europe", cofunded by the European Commission (Program: Europe for Citizens).

My article is about the experience and the results of the Circles held in Italy (Milan, Lumbardy and Taviano, Apulia).

The euroscepticism has gradually moved from political margins into the mainstream of European politics. The process of negotiation and ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, the financial crisis within the Eurozone and the security issues related to the free movement of people, to mention just few topics, galvanize public debates as never before, leaving fewer stones of optimistic EU integration unturned. Focusing mainly on West European EU members, the recent literature links the phenomenon of euroscepticism to social responses to political, economic and security issues that become possible with EU integration.
This study delves into this phenomenon by using the case of Bulgaria, one of the last countries who joined the EU. Despite its recent membership, Bulgaria is far from immune to euroscepticism. Most types of euroscepticism are found there, either in their soft and hard variety. Despite this overlapping, there is some important divergence between Bulgaria and the older EU members. Bulgarian euroscepticism is not just limited to responses to political, economic and security issues. It extends to identity issues having to do with social structures and new lifestyles.

Observations since the financial crashes (2007) and the events in Europe suggested clearly the shift to the present turmoil of the EU-project (diversity, identity and autonomy). Since the foundation of European unity vision after second war six significant periods and episodes are evident. The Brexit illustrates the most dramatic scenario - following the earlier periods and spirit of the European idea. The latter generated more contradictions than integrating impacts on a Europe which seems more diversified and reluctant against a "globalized" and homogeneous part of world society.