Perceptions of the Role of European Union Institutions in the Management of the Eurozone Crisis and Its Consequences: The View from the Perspective of Domestic Political Elites

Given the widely acknowledged ‘democratic deficit’ in the institutional architecture of the European Union (see for instance Rose 2013 or Majone 2004), its legitimacy before citizens has greatly depended on their political and economic performance. In this respect, literature on support to the EU has demonstrated the importance of utilitarian arguments in explaining variation in this support (Gabel 1998). The Eurozone crisis has posed a major challenge for the EU (maybe the more important one in its history) given the dramatic impact in the economies and societies of some member states. In this respect, it is plausible to argue that the role of EU institutions in coping with the crisis may have affected their legitimacy before citizens in member states – these consequences varying depending on the consequences EU decisions have brought to each country. In this vein, the perceptions of member states’ national political elites are crucial, as they are mediating instances affecting (positive or negatively) the legitimacy of EU institutions before their fellow citizens. This paper focuses precisely on the perceptions by political elites in member states of the role of EU institution in the management of the Eurozone crisis and their eventual consequences on the levels of support to these institutions, their policies and the integration process as a whole. To this end, I draw on survey data gathered by the ENEC-2014 project on national MPs in 10 member states differently affected by the Eurozone crisis (Croatia, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain).