EU Issues Research Articles

Not for ideology but opportunity? The foundations of EU issue-voting in Eurosceptic Italy

ABSTRACT Party-system dynamics and party EU ideology have traditionally influenced trends in EU issue-voting, with opposition and Eurosceptic parties being more likely to benefit electorally from EU issues. While the electoral benefits of Eurosceptic and opposition parties on the EU have been separately analysed, less is known about the persistence of these preference configurations when Eurosceptic parties move into government. This raises a key question: Does the electoral potential of Eurosceptic parties change once they take over government? We address this question focusing on the Italian case, which, due to the experience of having had a fully-fledged Eurosceptic cabinet in the 2018–2019 period, allows us to test whether changes in governing/opposition status affect the electoral performance of Eurosceptic/Europhile parties on EU issues. While confirming that Italian voters are likely, electorally, to reward opposition and Eurosceptic parties on Europe more than governing and Europhile parties, the article shows that Eurosceptic parties, by assuming government office, tend to lose their electoral advantage on EU issues, not only as compared to Europhile parties, but also to Eurosceptic parties remaining in opposition. In contrast, governing/opposition status does not condition the electoral potential of Europhile parties on the EU dimension.

Upcoming events on EU issues

Compilation of congresses and conferences on matters related to the EU.

The Eastern Partnership as a Contested Neighbourhood: The Role of External Actors – The EU and Russia

Contestation remains a signifi cant factor in the EU neighbourhood. The aim of this article is to elaborate on the role of external actors – namely the European Union and the Russian Federation – in managing local and regional contestation. The latter is defined as incompatibilities between two or more competing views about how political, economic, social, and territorial order should be established and/or sustained. Competing interests between the EU and Russia concern many issues; the model of political system in the neighbourhood (democracy vs. authoritarianism), the model and direction of the economic integration of these countries (European or Eurasia integration), and the infrastructure and availability of gas and oil (energy disputes). The common neighbourhood, which concerns EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine), has become an area of rivalry rather than cooperation between the EU and Russia. The first seeks to stabilise the post-Soviet area, while Russia exploits local destabilisations and conflicts to maintain its influence there.

The Valence Side of the EU: EU Issue Voting in the Aftermath of the Eurozone Crisis

AbstractIn the aftermath of the Euro crisis, EU issues have increasingly affected electoral behaviour, explaining a sizable shift in votes from the Europhile to Eurosceptic parties. This paper advances the argument that EU issue voting is not entirely encompassed in a divisive (pro‐/anti‐) EU dimension, testing the hypothesis that a EU valence voting is currently conditioning electoral behaviour. In particular, we posit that voters support parties evaluating their credibility in achieving not only EU positional goals (‘leave/remain’ in the EU), but also EU valence ones (i.e., making the country count more in Europe). Furthermore, we assess which parties – pro‐/anti‐EU – are more likely to be supported on the basis of this valence issue. Based on survey data from France (2017) and Italy (2018), we found that the EU valence issue is an important voting predictor, with pro‐EU parties mainly benefitting from it.

Sovereign wealth fund investments in private funds: selected tax planning considerations in the US, EU and UK

Purpose To discuss US, EU and UK tax-related issues that sovereign wealth funds should consider when investing in private funds. Design/methodology/approach Discusses various tax-related structuring, operational, risk-allocation, and economic matters that private funds, sovereign wealth funds and other non-US institutional investors should consider a series when evaluating potential private fund investments. Findings Despite the market disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, sovereign wealth funds continued to make significant capital commitments to private funds in 2020 and, as the world emerges from the pandemic, are expected to make similar or greater commitments in 2021 and beyond. Originality/value Practical guidance from lawyers with wide experience in international tax planning and investment fund structuring.

Think European, act local: do Italians think of Europe when they vote in national elections?

ABSTRACT In many respects, Italy – a founding member of the EU and once one of its most pro-European countries – may well represent today a privileged observation point for the study of the electoral behaviour of Eurosceptic voters. In the article, we look for evidence about a Eurosceptical match between the demand and the supply sides of the Italian electoral process. For this purpose, through use of data collected by the Itanes 2018 national election survey, we analyse whether it is possible to find a relationship between Eurosceptical attitudes among voters and their vote choice for Eurosceptic parties. We hypothesise that those citizens who have turned their back on the EU rejecting its intervention and who prioritise instead defence of national sovereignty have a greater propensity to vote for Eurosceptic parties. Results confirm our hypothesis showing that, in a context of growing disenchantment of Italian public opinion toward the EU, Eurosceptic voters increasingly mobilised in support of those parties that have made great efforts in the past to politicise EU issues and to establish their ownership on Euroscepticism.

A review of political advertising online during the 2019 European Elections and establishing future regulatory requirements in Ireland

ABSTRACT Ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections, the lack of regulation addressing online political advertising with the potential to undermine the integrity of the electoral process was a significant concern. Within Ireland, the Standards in Public Office Commission regulates ‘ethics, electoral, state finance and lobbying legislation’, however, there are few requirements made of political parties to disclose their funding of online political advertising. As a wider EU issue, the European Commission sought to address this lack of oversight by engaging with social media platforms to agree a voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation. Signatories to this, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, committed to ‘ensuring transparent, fair and trustworthy online campaign activities ahead of the European elections in spring 2019’ (Kirk, N., Culloty, E., Casey, E., Teeling, L., Park, K., Kearns, C. Suiter, J. (2019). ElectCheck2019: A report on political advertising online during the 2019 European elections. Institute for Future Media and Journalism. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18135.01449). The report here summarises the data and key findings from monitoring the levels of transparency in the political advert libraries relating to Ireland over the European Election campaign from April 18th to May 24th, 2019. The report finds that, although platforms proactively engaged with their commitments under the EU Code, inconsistencies in the companies’ approach to this result in a lack of transparency and comprehensive understanding of political and issue-based advertising online in such election campaigns.

The EU Elephant: Europe in the 2021 Dutch General Elections

For the Netherlands, the single most important EU issue is the future of the eurozone.

The Europeanization of national elections. The role of country characteristics in shaping EU issue voting

Research has shown that voting in European elections is affected by domestic politics. However, in the last years, and particularly after the European debt crisis, also the EU has gained relevance and salience in national politics. In this paper we address the Europeanization of national elections and assess to what extent the characteristics of countries condition the intensity of EU issue voting. Using data from the European Election Studies and the Comparative Manifestos Project, our results demonstrate the importance of congruence between citizens' and parties’ positions on the EU for the individual vote on the national level and show how this varies across countries. We provide evidence that EU issue voting is more intense in countries with more political influence in the EU as well as in countries that are net contributors to EU funds.

Politicizing Europe in Elections to the European Parliament (1994–2019): The Crucial Role of Mainstream Parties

AbstractBased on original data, this article analyses the politicization of European issues in European elections. Contrary to scholarly expectations, our findings show a higher level of politicization of European issues compared to national elections. However, politicization has been declining in both electoral arenas from the early 2000s until 2014 despite the increasing visibility of radical Eurosceptic parties. This paper suggests that this decline in politicization is a consequence of relatively low levels of emphasis put on the EU issue by mainstream political parties. It argues that Eurosceptic parties have had a paradoxical effect on politicization, since mainstream parties have responded to the former's mobilizing efforts by de‐emphasizing European issues rather than pursuing a confrontational strategy. This finding is corroborated by the 2019 elections, where we observe remarkably high levels of politicization in those countries where mainstream parties have been forced to open the debate around European issues.

Europeanization by European Parliament Political Groups: The Case of Latvia 2004-2019

Abstract This article assesses the top-down Europeanization of national political parties by the political groups of the European Parliament. Based on the premise that the national political parties alter their agendas and argumentation because of ties to their respective European Parliament political groups, the paper presents a case study of Latvia in the period from 2004 to 2019. The analysis focuses on the agendas of three political parties whose continuity can be clearly traced during the fifteen years – the “New Unity”, the “National Alliance” and the “Latvian Russian Union”. It concludes that the small number of members of the European Parliament elected from Latvia, migration of individual politicians from party to party, and low durability of Latvian parties themselves has limited the sustainability of Europeanization and impeded downloading of EU topics and principles to the national party level. Meanwhile, party programs of all three observed parties have Europeanized since 2004 in terms of the number and depth of the EU issues addressed.

From Political Interest to Participation in EU-related Actions: The Mediating Role of European Identity and Political Efficacy

European youth’s civic engagement and political participation in EU-related issues is a timely imperative. Research findings on youth citizenship range from political apathy to alternative forms of participation, although theoretical evidence remains poor. This study is based on empirical data from the Greek contribution to the European program CATCH-EyoU (Horizon 2020), aiming to explore different forms and predictors of youth’s civic engagement and political participation on EU-related issues. Based on social psychological theoretical background, we assumed that the expressed political interest for the EU translates to specific forms of action. Identification with the EU and perceived political efficacy/alienation were expected to mediate the above relationship. The sample consisted of 749 young adults aged 18-27 (M = 22.2, 50.7% women, 89.7% Greek citizens, 72% university students, 75.5% employed). In addition to voting, four components of political participation and civic engagement were studied, namely conventional participation (in support of political parties and goals), activism (acts of protest against the authorities), online participation (social networks), and volunteering (non-profit actions). Mediation analyses showed that the relationship between political interest and participation can be explained by different mechanisms: The sense of belonging in the EU lead to more frequent electoral participation, but to less activism and online participation. On the contrary, EU identity exploration and reconsideration contributed to increased conventional participation. Political efficacy seemed to promote activism and online participation, while political alienation tended to decrease activism. These findings reveal the multiple connotations of youth’s politicalparticipation regarding EU issues.

Literature Review: Time and Tax: Issues in International, EU, and Constitutional Law, W. Hashlehner, G. Kofler and A. Rust (editors), Kluwer Law International, 2018, by Cécile Brokelind

Literature Review: Time and Tax: Issues in International, EU, and Constitutional Law, W. Hashlehner, G. Kofler and A. Rust (editors), Kluwer Law International, 2018, by Cécile Brokelind

When do European election campaigns become about Europe?

This article examines which parties included European issues in their 2014 European Parliament campaigns, and what influenced whether they did so, based on innovative data from the content analysis of 9,100 press releases in seven countries. Overall, established and especially governing parties no longer shied away from EU issues, referring to them as often as challenger parties did. The likelihood of EU issues in campaigns derives from a combination of predictors from the selective emphasis and co-orientation approaches. In general, parties with high internal dissent on EU integration avoid European issues, and weak leaders will only dare talk about the EU if internal dissent is low. However, between-party-type comparisons indicate that successful leaderships of governing parties facing strong internal divisions are even less likely to put EU issues on the agenda. With respect to the co-orientation model, parties’ EU focus seems to be mainly determined by the communication of (other) opposition parties.

Elite‐public interaction on twitter: EU issue expansion in the campaign

AbstractWhy do some issues receive more interest from the public, while others do not? This paper develops a theoretical and empirical approach that explains the degree to which issues expand from the elite to the public. We examine how candidates in the 2014 European Parliament elections talked about EU issues, in comparison to other political issues. We rely on data collected from Twitter and use a combination of human coding and machine learning to analyse what facilitates interactions from the public. We find that most political actors did not try to engage with the public about EU issues, and lack of engagement results in less interactions from the general public. Our findings contribute to understanding why EU issues still play a secondary role in European politics, but at the same time highlight what low‐cost communicational tools might be useful to overcome this expansion deficit.

Cross-cutting issues and electoral choice. EU issue voting in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum

ABSTRACTAs political competition is becoming increasingly multi-dimensional in Europe, voters often face the challenge of choosing which issues matter most to them. The European integration issue presents a particular difficulty for voters, since it is not closely aligned to the left-right dimension. We test the impact of the EU issue in the first parliamentary election following the UK's divisive Brexit referendum. We argue that while the EU issue was salient to voters, EU issue voting was inhibited by the indistinct and ambiguous positions adopted by the two major parties. To examine this, we combine an analysis of British Election Study data from the 2017 General Election with a conjoint experiment that allows us to present voters with a range of choices on both dimensions. Our findings show that the EU dimension has the potential to become a cross-cutting dimension that rivals the left-right dimension in British electoral politics, but this crucially depends on party competition.

Mismatch? Comparing elite and citizen polarisation on EU issues across four countries

ABSTRACTNational politicisation of European Union issues has risen following events such as the economic crisis and the refugee influx. This has led to changes at the party (rising Eurosceptic parties) and the voter level (increasing public Euroscepticism). EU politicisation is thus assumed to influence the overall distribution of EU positions in terms of EU polarisation. This raises the question to what extent there is a (mis)match between polarisation at the party and voter level, and its dependence on structural and supply-side dynamics. Using CHES 2017 data and survey data across four EU countries (Germany, Spain, Hungary and the Netherlands) this paper compares elite- and citizen-level EU polarisation. The results show a strong association of party- and citizen-level EU polarisation – for both general and policy-specific EU positions – with higher polarisation among citizens than among parties. Country-specific patterns are due to different political competition on the supply side.

The reshaping of political conflict over Europe: from pre-Maastricht to post-‘Euro crisis’

Party competition over European integration is structured by two main dimensions of political conflict: a socio-economic dimension (market liberalisation vs. a more regulated economy) and a socio-cultural dimension (libertarian, cosmopolitan values vs. authoritarian, nationalist values). This article investigates the relationship between these conflict dimensions and parties’ positions towards EU issues across time and space, in particular focussing on two ‘critical junctures’ in the European unification process. For this purpose, analysis is made of the election manifestos of parties competing in European Parliament elections (Euromanifestos) from 1979 to 2014. First, it is found that the key moment of the Maastricht treaty significantly reshaped party competition over Europe. After Maastricht, positions towards European integration have become less connected to the economic dimension and much more related to the cultural dimension in Western Europe. Second, it is contended that the Euro crisis has not dramatically restructured political conflict over European integration.

Energy Efficiency Issues in Ukraine and EU

The economy of Ukraine depends on the ability to adequately respond to the challenges of today that are manifested in energy-efficient changes in the economic, environmental, and social spheres of civil society. Practices of developed countries on types of energy saving policy are investigated, their peculiarities and possibilities of adaptation to Ukrainian realities are determined, principles of energy saving policy are developed and factors of state regulation of energy saving sphere are determined. The example of attracting grant funds, the implementation of which will raise the energy-efficient consciousness of our society, promote the idea of energy saving at the level of enterprises, self-government bodies is given. The practical implementation of the proposed developments on cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the field of energy saving will ensure the formation of environmental interest of economic entities and authorities of different levels in the activation of energy efficient changes in the context of the implementation of the main guidelines for sustainable development of Ukraine.

EU authority, politicization and EU issue voting

L’autorité de l’UE a-t-elle une incidence sur le vote sur enjeu européen dans les élections nationales ? Les recherches actuelles suggèrent que la politisation des enjeux européens dépend de l’étendue des compétences de l’UE. Or, la politisation accroît l’importance des enjeux au niveau individuel, ce qui, à son tour, favorise le vote sur enjeu. Ainsi, le vote sur enjeu européen devrait être plus répandu parmi les personnes qui jugent l’UE responsable des décisions politiques. Pour vérifier cette hypothèse, j’utilise les données EES de 2009. Les résultats montrent que les individus qui considèrent l’UE comme responsable n’ont pas plus tendance à choisir les partis en fonction de leur positionnement européen. En outre, des analyses complémentaires indiquent la présence d’un vote sur enjeu européen, mais pas d’augmentation entre 2004 et 2009. Dans l’ensemble, peu d’éléments indiquent que l’autorité de l’UE influe sur le vote sur enjeu européen.