Reconfiguring Popular Attitudes Towards European Integration in Southern Europe

Southern Europe has traditionally been perceived as a region of strong pro-European sentiment. Within South European societies, there has in the past been a tendency to link participation in European integration not only with economic prosperity and high budgetary transfers, but also with democratic stabilisation and good governance. As a consequence, popular support for the European Union remained at generally high levels for a long period. It was also striking that from the early 1990s, when the single currency entered the EU agenda, it was particularly popular in Southern Europe – even though at that point it looked unlikely that the South European states would meet the criteria to take part. However, the South European image of European integration has been negatively influenced by the economic crisis. Several South European states have been recipients of EU/IMF bailouts accompanied by tough conditionality. As a result, in Southern Europe the EU has become associated with economic austerity, painful reforms and diminished sovereignty. Meanwhile European integration itself is undergoing a major crisis, with the internal fractures produced by the eurozone crisis now compounded by the new strains arising from the refugee crisis. The aim of this paper is to examine whether and to what extent these developments have changed popular attitudes towards European integration in Southern Europe. To what extent is the crisis period leading to a reconfiguring of popular attitudes towards European integration? Has there been a rise in euroscepticism and if so, is it of the hard or soft variety? Have the sacrifices which South Europeans made in order to stay within the eurozone altered their attitudes towards the single currency? Do South Europeans trust the European institutions? And do these countries continue, as in the past, to be strong supporters of deeper integration? The paper aims to address these questions using Eurobarometer data. In doing so, it aims to illuminate issues of change and continuity in South European public opinion on one of the major issues for the region: its future relationship with European integration. The extent to which the current crisis period has affected public support in a region which has traditionally been one of the most loyal to European integration is also clearly an issue of considerable importance for the EU itself.