Confronting Legitimacy and Effectiveness: Political and Public Responses Towards the European Union

Abstract

The panel deals with the political discourses and public responses towards the European Union (EU) in Western and Central and Eastern European countries. Specifically, it looks at the mainstream and extreme right political discourses on Europe, the role of the media in legitimising the European Parliament and public responses towards the Union. The Eurosceptic and anti-EU attitudes can be traced in both political rhetoric and the public debate across European countries. Further integration and enlargement of the EU and the European financial crisis have led to the rise of Euroscepticism among various actors in the public sphere. As a result, there has been a considerable decline in public support for the European integration and even attitudes of national political parties, especially in the context of public discontent with the political process of the EU, have often been inconsistent. The 2014 European elections showed wide support for extreme right parties, which have been in recent years openly hostile to the European integration and through defense of economic and cultural protectionism represented one of the most salient anti-Brussels forces in politics. In this context, the media, both intentionally or unintentionally, may set and reinforce these positions and beliefs towards the political process of the Union. A common public discourse is seen as a precondition of a functioning democracy because it empowers citizens to evaluate politics and hold decision-makers accountable. A focus on different aspects of discourse, therefore, helps to judge the maturity of any system that aspires to be democratic. This panel, reflecting on the current situation, will bring together contemporary theoretical approaches and empirical findings to various aspects of the discourses on Europe. The individual papers discuss the media coverage of the European Parliament in light of the legitimising potential of the European Union and the effects on public opinion, look at public opinion towards the EU and the effect on their political participation, assess the success of the European Citizens' Initiative as an institutionalized input mechanism that is ideally based on a common public discourse or at least might help creating one, and also deal with the mainstream and extreme right political discourses on Europe criticized and Europe desired. The papers include theoretical and empirical examples of the political and public discourses in Western and Central and Eastern Europe and discuss the future challenges for the study of these phenomena.