Unpacking European Solidarity

The recent European crisis revived past debates regarding a closer union in terms of social solidarity and risk-sharing. These debates reveal a cleavage between those in favour of taking responsibilities for ‘other’ Europeans whose countries face economic difficulties and those who consider that the European project does not imply the share of economic misfortunes. This paper addresses the issue both theoretically and empirically by revising classical theories on social solidarity in the context of the EU polity. In order to test the theoretical arguments, I use an original survey conducted in six European countries with resident national citizens and two groups of immigrants of EU and non-EU origin. Preliminary analysis of the data suggests that transnational emotional ties do not spill over into transnational social solidarity. Instead, EU identification is positively correlated to social solidarity. As well, those who are economically/professionally more dependent on the EU polity do not necessarily support transnational forms of solidarity. From a country-level perspective, individuals living in countries less affected by the economic crisis are less prone to support an institutionalized form of European solidarity.