Integration By Fear? Attitudes of National Political Elites Towards Europe in the Crisis

The paper investigates the impact of the post 2008 crisis on elites’ attitudes towards European Integration. Elite theory applied to European Integration considers the stability and efficiency of the EU and its institutions as inextricably linked to their foundation in a broad consensus among the national elites. The empirical analysis of this ‘Europeanness’ in its emotive, cognitive and conative dimensions at the eve of the crisis proved this consensus as not existent, the national context has been pivotal in shaping elites attitudes. Although this heterogeneity provided flexibility in bargaining and decision making, it was doubtful whether these mechanisms will prove sufficient in face of a massive threat. And indeed, the ESM and the decisions that ultimately led to its establishment strengthened intergouvernmental regimes in Europe and not the supranational institutions, stratifying the EU based on the power of the national economies. Most of the national elites accepted this stratification, because they feared this is the only solution to prevent the breakdown of their national economies and the explosion of their state indebtedness, which otherwise would be at the mercy of the globalized financial market. Therefore the assumption of the paper is that the crisis has not fuelled Europeanization but intergouvernmentalism and thereby a shift to national politics. The impact of the national context on elites’ attitudes is therefore likely to be strengthened. The paper investigates this assumption by applying multi-level analysis to the three MP surveys conducted by IntUne in 2007, 2009 and ENEC in 2014.