The politicization and mediatization of Europe’s differentiated order

Abstract

While the question of what the European differentiated political order looks like is a question that is increasingly investigated by researchers from a broad range of fields, much less is known both about how citizens perceive this differentiation and how the media write about it. The papers in this panel seek to fill this knowledge gap. The papers by Heermann and Moland seek to investigate the attitude formation of citizens regarding institutionalized differentiated integration in different ways: Heermann turns the focus to how economic and political externalities impact the preferences that EU citizens have for differentiated modes of integration, finding that the prospect of negative externalities lowers support for differentiated integration. This suggests that citizens believe institutional arrangements at the EU level should be fair for all, rather than providing benefits only for their own state. Meanwhile, Moland finds that support for two-speed Europe is significantly lower in Central and Eastern Europe, suggesting that differentiated integration may be opposed in situations where it is imposed against the will of citizens. Furthermore, the paper by Trenz, Michailidou and Umit shines a novel light on how differentiation is covered by traditional media sources. Together, the panel will illuminate the conditions under which citizens will express support for a more differentiated European political order, asking important questions about who supports European differentiation, why they choose to do so, and what kinds of differentiation is portrayed as acceptable by the media.

Title	Details
Domination and public support for differentiation: Examining the connection between mode of implementation and support for differentiated integration	View Paper Details
Fairness for Outsiders: Negative Externalities Reduce Public Support for Differentiated Integration in the EU	View Paper Details
Media coverage of differentiation in the EU: A cross-country analysis of news reports by EU correspondents	View Paper Details