The global financial and economic crisis affecting the world economy since 2008 has had important consequences both on the configuration and functioning of national and EU political systems. At the national level, in the countries subject to financial assistance, conditionality, along with social unrest, entailed increases in political disaffection among citizens, a loss of legitimacy of political institutions, the discredit of mainstream parties and the rise of extremist or anti-system political alternatives. At the EU level, there is a growing questioning of the efficacy of the EU institutional architecture in coping with the present situation as well as of the underlying fundamentals of the integration process itself, while a larger numbers of citizens feel that EU institutions do not respond to their needs.

What has been the role of national political elites in this context? This symposium consisting in two panels aims to shed greater light on the present and the future of the EU, by examining the evolution of attitudes of national political elites in this critical juncture. Papers in the two panels will cover questions related to the future of the integration process in a European perspective and country case studies with regards to the economic crisis. Paper givers will build on the results of the project European National Elites and the Crisis (ENEC-2014) (http://enec-2014.wix.com/enec-2014), a continuation of the EU funded INTUNE project, which in the years 2007 and 2009 surveyed the attitudes of national elites towards the process of European integration.