European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2026-03-12eCollection Date: 2026-06-01DOI: 10.1177/14651165261423107
Jakob J Eicheler
{"title":"What drives European solidarity? Evidence on identity-based, value-based, and utilitarian explanations.","authors":"Jakob J Eicheler","doi":"10.1177/14651165261423107","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165261423107","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article analyses how and why individuals maintain or change their European solidarity over time using German panel data. I answer two questions: (1) Who maintains their level of European solidarity? (2) Do identity-based, value-based, or utilitarian approaches best explain change in European solidarity? I examine four dimensions of solidarity: territorial, fiscal, and welfare solidarity, and the support for European social citizenship. Despite COVID-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, 44-57% of German respondents maintained stable solidarity. Stability varied little across sociodemographic groups. Those who identified more with Europe and on the economic and transnationalist left were less likely to reduce their solidarity. Transnational political orientation is the main driver of intra-individual change in European solidarity. When individuals come to identify more with Europe, they increase their solidarity, whereas national identification has inconsistent effects. Utilitarian factors, including exposure to regional crises, show little effect on individual solidarity. The findings add nuance to identity-based and utilitarian explanations of how individuals develop and maintain European solidarity.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"27 2","pages":"325-348"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13218604/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148137043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2026-03-04eCollection Date: 2026-06-01DOI: 10.1177/14651165261423087
Jana Gómez Díaz, Eva Thomann, Anita Manatschal, Xavier Fernández-I-Marín
{"title":"Identity- versus effort-based bureaucratic discrimination among mobile European Union citizens: Evidence from conjoint experiments.","authors":"Jana Gómez Díaz, Eva Thomann, Anita Manatschal, Xavier Fernández-I-Marín","doi":"10.1177/14651165261423087","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165261423087","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Discrimination by welfare bureaucrats in host countries poses significant administrative burdens for mobile European Union citizens' social rights in practice. However, the relative importance of applicants' identity and perceived effort therein is understudied. Combining discrimination and behavioral theory, we investigate how nationality and perceived effort affect bureaucratic discrimination. A choice-based conjoint survey experiment presents 2403 bureaucrats in Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, and Spain with fictional information requests from French and Bulgarian citizens. The results of the experiment show that bureaucrats-particularly administrators with antimigration and right-wing attitudes-favor French citizens over Bulgarians. Preferential treatment was strongest for applicants whose language fluency and job-seeking activities indicate integration efforts. Bureaucratic discrimination is much more about what EU citizens do than who they are.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"27 2","pages":"301-324"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13218594/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148137104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2025-11-21eCollection Date: 2026-03-01DOI: 10.1177/14651165251395315
Radu-Mihai Triculescu, Leonce Röth, Christoph Ivanusch, Klaus H Goetz
{"title":"Presidents, commissioners, and time pressure: A mixed-methods analysis of migration communication by the European Commission.","authors":"Radu-Mihai Triculescu, Leonce Röth, Christoph Ivanusch, Klaus H Goetz","doi":"10.1177/14651165251395315","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165251395315","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The evolution of the European Commission and its functioning has sparked a broad scholarly debate. However, we know little about how individual Commission members communicate policies. We propose a theoretical framework that presents time pressure as a critical communicative resource to indicate priority and discuss its function for members of the European Commission. Using a comprehensive mixed-methods design that combines state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative text analysis methods, this article examines how institutional roles, evolving authority, and contextual factors, such as crisis periods, affect the communicative behavior of members of the European Commission. It focuses on the case of migration and asylum policy. We find key differences in how Commission Presidents and responsible Home Affairs Commissioners communicate and invoke time pressure. While Presidents have long emphasized urgency, Commissioners have historically downplayed time pressure. More recently, however, they have also increasingly stressed similar urgency. The qualitative analysis highlights distinct target audiences and framings of the time pressure invocations of Presidents and Commissioners.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"88-112"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12944555/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147325156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-04-01DOI: 10.1177/14651165251320870
Alexandru D Moise, Ioana-Elena Oana, Zbigniew Truchlewski, Chendi Wang
{"title":"Two functionalist logics of European Union polity formation under external threat: Evidence from a conjoint experiment.","authors":"Alexandru D Moise, Ioana-Elena Oana, Zbigniew Truchlewski, Chendi Wang","doi":"10.1177/14651165251320870","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165251320870","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Russian invasion of Ukraine challenged the European Union (EU) polity exceptionally, affecting many policy domains. We argue that the external threat triggers different logics of (in)security which can result in polity formation across policies. Two functionalist logics put pressure on the EU to centralize policies that (a) help it meet the geopolitical challenge set by Russia and (b) maintain unity among member states in the face of the challenge. We test this theory with a conjoint survey experiment in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and Hungary, where we vary refugee, energy, costs of living, and defense policies. Our results show that there is strong solidarity for sharing the costs of refugees, which cuts across ideological and identitarian groups, and across countries. Other policy areas show more contentious support.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"26 2","pages":"369-392"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12097704/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-03-14DOI: 10.1177/14651165251320837
Alexandru D Moise, Chendi Wang
{"title":"Appeasement or solidarity? Uncovering the drivers of European public opinion on the EU's foreign policy.","authors":"Alexandru D Moise, Chendi Wang","doi":"10.1177/14651165251320837","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165251320837","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Russian invasion of Ukraine, with its implications for European security, has intensified the need to understand European public opinion on potential conflict strategies. This study delves into the formation of these opinions, focusing on utilitarian factors like economic interests and threat perception, and ideological elements such as political orientation, national identity and perceptions of Russia and Ukraine. Utilising a two-wave panel survey from five European Union (EU) countries, our findings underscore that ideological factors, especially trust in Russia and Ukraine are paramount in shaping support for escalation or de-escalation. Economic concerns, threat perceptions, right-wing ideologies and strong national identities also play significant roles. This research not only illuminates European sentiment on the war in Ukraine but also enriches broader discussions on the determinants of public opinion in international conflicts.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"26 2","pages":"418-441"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12097701/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-03-14DOI: 10.1177/14651165251321802
Chendi Wang, Argyrios Altiparmakis
{"title":"What happened to Putin's friends? The radical right's reaction to the Russian invasion on social media.","authors":"Chendi Wang, Argyrios Altiparmakis","doi":"10.1177/14651165251321802","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165251321802","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Ukrainian crisis has significantly shifted public opinion against Russia and Putin, placing politicians with prior Russian ties in a precarious situation. This paper tracks how parties that had some affinity to Putin have pivoted after the outbreak of war. Through computational text analysis of a decade of Facebook posts from 11 European radical right parties, we investigate their stance evolution towards Russia and their strategic management of public sentiment and Russian relationships. The results show that most radical right parties, after the invasion, neither tried to remain pro-Russia nor focussed their attention on shifting their prior position. Instead, they engaged in blurring the issue, diverting attention away from the war and using the events in Ukraine to assert their anti-EU positions.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"26 2","pages":"393-417"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12097702/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-03-03DOI: 10.1177/14651165251318950
Alexandru D Moise, Chendi Wang
{"title":"Division and unity: Voter and party perspectives on EU integration under external threat.","authors":"Alexandru D Moise, Chendi Wang","doi":"10.1177/14651165251318950","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165251318950","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Russian invasion of Ukraine has reshaped European politics, prompting the European Union (EU) to take indirect actions such as aiding Ukraine, accepting refugees, and imposing sanctions on Russia. This special section explores the implications of these events on European unity. Will the war highlight divisions among countries and ideological groups, as \"post-functionalists\" would predict? Or will the external threat, in line with the \"bellicist logic,\" and EU solidarity, in line with the \"polity formation\" literature, foster increased EU policy coordination and centralization? The contributions assess the war's impact on the supply (political parties) and demand (public opinion) sides of the politics of European integration. The articles show moderate support for the \"bellicist\" mechanisms of threat and consensus. They also find solidarity and unity for refugee and energy policy, with greater ideological and country divisions over economic policy, defence policy, and appeasement strategies toward Russia.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"26 2","pages":"296-309"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12097700/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
European Union PoliticsPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-02-18DOI: 10.1177/14651165251318955
Ioana-Elena Oana, Alexandru D Moise, Zbigniew Truchlewski
{"title":"Demand-side constraints on European solidarity for energy sanctions: Experimental evidence from seven EU countries.","authors":"Ioana-Elena Oana, Alexandru D Moise, Zbigniew Truchlewski","doi":"10.1177/14651165251318955","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14651165251318955","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Russian invasion of Ukraine is testing bonds of energy solidarity in Europe as domestic and territorial conflicts can undermine unity and swift political action. To examine the magnitude of these divisions on the demand side, we use a factorial survey experiment in seven EU countries. On the one hand, the external security threat should push European unity further. On the other hand, the asymmetry of the crisis could fuel both between-country divisions, given differences in energy dependence and geopolitical context, and within-country divisions, across political groups, reducing the potential for common policy. Our results show that while there is a wide consensus on energy sanctions between countries (except Hungary), within countries there is a greater potential for conflict along identarian, partisan, and economic lines.</p>","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"26 2","pages":"344-368"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12097703/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Eurodisappointed: On the disenchantment with the EU's limited response to democratic backsliding","authors":"Radosław Markowski, Piotr Zagórski","doi":"10.1177/14651165231218894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231218894","url":null,"abstract":"Some defenders of democratic rights and the rule of law are becoming increasingly frustrated by the European Union's inadequate response to democratic backsliding in countries like Poland and Hungary. This study focuses on Poland and introduces the concept of ‘Eurodisappointment’ to describe this new group, which is conceptually and empirically distinct from Euroscepticism. Rather than being Eurosceptic, the Eurodisappointed self-limit their Euroenthusiasm without opposing integration. Drawing on original survey data, we demonstrate that Eurodisappointment is particularly prevalent among women, opposition party voters, and those dissatisfied with the state of democracy in Poland. It is yet to be seen whether and how the concept of Eurodisappointment can be applied to studies of attitudes towards the European Union in other member states.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"118 43","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138953894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Europe around the corner? How border proximity and quality of government explains European identity","authors":"Monika Bauhr, N. Charron","doi":"10.1177/14651165231216882","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231216882","url":null,"abstract":"Do citizens that live close to the border of another European country feel more European? We suggest that border proximity affects European identity formation, but that the positive effect of border proximity is confined largely to areas where citizens live close to regions with better quality of government and lower levels of corruption. Using our newly collected individual level and post-coded data from the most recent wave of the European Quality of Government survey, covering over 129,000 respondents in all 27 European Union member countries, we show that citizens that live close to the border of another country express a stronger European identity, all things being equal. Yet the effect is driven largely by citizens that live adjacent to regions with relatively higher/lower quality of government compared to their own region. Our study thereby contributes to a closer understanding of where and why citizens become attached to Europe, and if and how benchmarking institutional performance and quality of government affect citizens’ willingness to belong to, and identify with, Europe.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"17 24","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139009493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}