Public support for differentiated integration: Does institutional design matter?

Abstract

This paper examines citizens' preferences towards diff erentiated integration (DI). In particular, we analyse how the institutional design and governance of DI, affects public support for it. We report results from conjoint experiments implementated in a survey on DI, conducted in eight EU countries (Germany, France, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Greece and Ireland) in February 2021. Our results indicate that the governance and the institutional set up of diff erentiated integration, indeed, have important consequences for public support. For example, citizens prefer a strong role for the European Parliament in the proposal stage and prefer majoritarian voting to unanimity at the decision-making stage. Moreover, more inclusive and larger DI groups increase support of DI.