Euroscepticism and the EU Enlargement Process

There has been increasing bulk of research on Euroscepticism in recent years. Majority of new literature focus on innovative conceptualization of Euroscepticism, its role in major events as the Eurozone crisis or deal with its position within EU decision making system. There, however, are still areas that have not been studied sufficiently– typically, preferences of Eurosceptics in specific policy areas. EU enlargement policy represents such case which is quite striking since enlargement is not just “another” EU policy but above all the tool affecting and the very nature of integration. This paper wants to fill this gap. It builds on comparative approach as its goal is to reveal what Eurosceptic parties think about EU enlargement. Do they – as Eurosceptics – oppose it? Or on the contrary – do they support future EU enlargement in order to undermine coherency and efficiency of the EU believing in “natural” trade-of between enlarging and deepening of the Union? Are there differences across various types of Euroscepticism ? Can a uniform approach be found across the EU member states or does a specific national context play a crucial role? Answers to these questions are not interesting only per se. They may help us to wide our understanding of Euroscepticism by including its approach towards one of the most persistent phenomenon of the European integration. The paper/chapter works with political parties as the key actors promoting Euroscepticism and it deals with party manifestos for the EP election 2014. It uses qualitative content analysis as its main method. The analysis covers selected countries to encompass most important variations within the range of EU member states (such as small and big country, “old” and “new” member, core and peripheral member).