European Values during the Refugee and Migration Crisis: Hungarians’ and Polands’ MEPs discourse from 2009-2019

Political values in post-communist Europe reflect the communist and the West-European tradition. Whilst the former reminds us of more rigorous approaches regarding the position of the state and the ‘other’, the latter has been the structure for European values. However, the multiple crises the EU has experienced question the significance of European values for its MEPs, especially for its newest member-states. Such examples are Hungary and Poland, EU member-states since 2004. Acknowledging their shift from pro-Europeans to hard Eurosceptic countries, I question: How have the 'European Values' been imprinted in the Members of the European Parliament discourse? My research covers the period from 2009 until today, assuming those countries have reached a stage of political maturity after 20 years as EU members. To proceed with my research and manage the validity of my results, I will use the constructivist version of the grounded theory methodology combined with the MAXQDA software.