Perspectives on the Future of European Integration

Abstract

The European unification process has often been seen as self-referential, based on a substantial lack of confidence in the possibility that citizens will participate in decisions concerning the various political issues. However, on the occasion of various electoral events (such as those of 2014 in France, Germany, for the European Parliament and the Scottish referendum) there has been an increasing turnout due to the belief, on the part of the European people, that the real centers of power cannot be checked from below. This widespread belief explains the success of the populist and Eurosceptic parties. The main aim of this panel is to explore the roles played by both the EU member state governments and the institutions in the implementation of, and successive reforms in, cohesion and integration policies, consequently investigating the relationship between the different actors in the integration process. In this discussion we will try to understand whether the national states can preserve their national sovereignty in terms of foreign, domestic and economic policy. Additionally, submissions will concretely examine how the processes of integration are challenged by actors other than central governments. This provides evidence for an image of the EU in which central governments are losing control both to the Commission (leading actor in the implementation phase), and to the regional administrative entities which make up the single state members. The contributions aim to examine the evolution of European cohesion practices by analyzing the attempts to implement multi-level governance. Proposals will provide a comparative analysis of various case studies and across the different stages of the policy-making cycle, without forgetting their theoretical framework deriving from political theory.

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