What factors shape public attitudes toward the European Union (EU)? Observers of public opinion during the early stages of European integration found a stable ‘permissive consensus’ among citizens that allowed elites to pursue the project without deep public scrutiny. Almost everyone supported integration; there was very little variation to explain. Enlargement, deepening integration, and a […]

Why do some European citizens support sharing economic resources across national borders within the EU while others do not? While the EU and its supporters stand for ‘solidarity across borders’, opponents to increased economic integration argue that the money is better spent at home, exemplified by the Brexit leave campaign’s slogan “we can spend our […]

The European Union (EU) has at times presented itself as a beacon of hope and admiration within and beyond Europe. Some of the stories that it has told about itself have implied that Europe’s integration experience is successful and useful for other regions, and assumed that other regions were drawing on the EU experience.

Within the social sciences, there is an increasing interest in the ways in which the theoretical concepts employed in research and politics contribute to making the objects they are studying.

Following a surge of refugee arrivals in Europe in 2015, the numbers of new arrivals have significantly declined and the issue of asylum has ceased to dominate the political agenda. Nevertheless, the European Union remains deeply divided on how to establish responsibility-sharing among its member states and how to reform the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Despite intense political debates, no effective cooperation among European states for the common provision of humanitarian protection has been established.

Shawn Donnelly Is economic nationalism still alive when it comes to banking in the EU, and if so, what drives it? How have EU institutions responded so far? And in the process, do the Commission and the Single Resolution Board (SRB) have flexibility on the enforcement of bank resolution rules and can these rules be […]

In the last decade, dissent among EU member states about the EU’s fundamental values has increased as a result of some national governments’ refusal to implement decisions and consent to previously agreed policy on issues related to human rights, rule of law and migration.