Stories on Europe – political and public opinion on European integration in Germany and the Netherlands

The paper asks for the development of country specific perspectives on European integration in Germany and the Netherlands. It hypothesises that such “Stories on Europe” have been reproduced over the integration process and can still be detected within current political and public debate on European integration. National experiences of European integration result in very specific ways of perceiving this process by national politicians and citizens. The paper also finds, that while political and public debate certainly influence each other, the citizens’ hopes and concerns regarding European integration do not necessarily concur with the political perspective. However, they can do so, when basic principles of national self-understanding are concerned. Germany and the Netherlands belong to the founding members of what today has become the European Union. They therefore share 50 years of experience in European integration politics which puts their initial reasons for entering in the integration process in front of the same historic background. Using a thorough analysis of literature on German and Dutch European integration goals and foreign policy traditions, the paper is able to explain which of these traditions and what political logics have resulted in the country’s specific ways of perceiving European integration and influence political debate until today. The analysis shows that initial agreement existed concerning the supranational constitution of the European institutional setting. However, different reasons have to be attributed to these shared goals: the Netherlands’ aimed for a possibility to check in their bigger neighbours and for liberal trade regulations. Germany on the other hand offered self-constraint within a supranational setting in order to regain trust and national sovereignty. European integration has been and to some extent still is understood as guarantee of peace, stability and economic prosperity. However, a change can be detected in the early 90’s that led political debates in both countries, but especially Germany, to an increasingly pragmatic approach. European integration came to be perceived as a means to further national interests especially concerning economics. A secondary data analysis of Eurobarometer surveys on the public opinion on European integration displays that citizens concern themselves with different issues of European integration. Figures show that general agreement to EU membership and European integration is especially high in the Netherlands, but is also given by a majority of people in Germany. However, in 2004 agreement figures in both countries dropped considerably, when Eastern enlargement came upon the European agenda. The enlargement of the Union was connected with negative aspects such as the possible loss of social and economic standards and security, while it was supported strongly especially by the German government at that time. To citizens European integration, while positively evaluated on national security and peace issues, mostly threatens with the loss of national and cultural identity and opening up of borders to low wage countries. Only in the Netherlands do politicians and citizens concur on one aspect of European integration: Because of the national self-understanding as a small country, it is feared, that an ever growing Union may increasingly diminish the power of such countries.