Euroscepticism empowered by the new crisis.
Around the mid-1990s the European Union was as his peak of popularity as measured by Eurobarometer data.[1] The data reflects deeper trends such as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War which had had a deep impact on European history in a way given the European Union a strong sense of negative integration[2]. “The West democracy” and the European Union in the mid-1990s seemed to have clearly won and it was celebrated as such.
However, a day is a long time in politics, a week is even longer and a few years longer still. Now in 2021 in the middle of COVID-19 crisis, we are clearly somewhere else, we see the rise of populism and authoritarianism across the world, deep scepticism about supranationalism, euro scepticism in Europe and consequently in the UK, we had Brexit.
Euroscepticism as such is not something new, we are not discussing a new concept but something we have been experiencing actually from the very early beginnings of European integration to start off. With starting in the founding countries, there have been forms from the very early beginning. It started specifically with a Maastricht treaty and the referenda taking place in a number of countries where actually Euroscepticism started thriving throughout the European union.
Euroscepticism is not something that we should uh mix up with criticizing the European Union. Critique and criticism towards Europe should not be translated automatically into Euroscepticism. The demands for reform of how the current European Union works is very valid and very important. Constructive criticism is important to move Europe further, but Euroscepticism is something else. It is rather the combination of populist trends on the left and on the right parties.
Euroscepticism is best addressed by understanding well the often-valid concerns that are at the origins of Eurosceptic forces.[3] Likewise, we should consider that is not a homogenous concept, and its influence is different in different European Union Member States. We have countries like Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland where we can hardly find any forms of political party Euroscepticism and then we have countries like Italy, Nederland, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia with strong Eurosceptic parties. Also, the form of Euroscepticism varies, for instance, we have parties that want to leave the European Union as such and then you have this Europe septic party that does not want to leave the European Union all together but wants to leave projects of the European Union, like to leave the eurozone or any other specific projects. And, of course we have also other countries where it is actually more movements that are picking up uh the Europe septic trend and not political parties.
During crisis like the one we all face right now people tend to relay more on national support. This is especially true in European Union because even if we call ourself a Union, the nationalist fillings of most of the European countries is still alive and the road to more federative and centralised Union is still long and unknown.
A good example of this struggle is Italy who now is making the headlines for being one of the most Eurosceptic country in the European union and unfortunately the COVID-19 crisis has not changed this trend. At the moment the main feeling characterizing Italian citizens is fear for the sanitarian crisis but also there is a growing fear about the economic consequences that this crisis will have at national level. This situation is the perfect base for populist parties to build a lot of nationalist campaigns and by finding in external factors such as the European Union or the migration policy crisis is a perfect scapegoat to justify national failures.
The majority of the Italians still believe that the European Union has not shown any sort of solidarity and that the European Union has not been effective in helping Italy in facing the crisis. The majority of the Italians believe that the European Union is not effective and they tend to trust more local governments and this is directly linked to Euroscepticism.
The majority of the Italian regions are now governed by a right-wing coalition led by Lega Nord with its head Mateo Salvini, and consequently regional government are playing a very important part in raising these sentiments against the European Union and misleading a sort of anti-European discourses because it is easier when you have a scapegoat to accuse and you do not have solutions and constructive proposals or critics on how to deal whit the crisis. In April 2020 the majority of Italian citizens consider France and Germany as enemy countries while China and Russia to be friendliest countries to Italy and these data[4] are quite alarming in terms of Euroscepticism.[5] The same narrative is present in Hungary where they are first in European Union to approve Russians Sputnik V vaccine bypassing the European Medicine Agency authorisation.[6]
The same report[7] suggests that Italians do not want to exit from the European Union, they might want to have a form of autonomy or might want to exit from the eurozone but not from the European Union at all.
Consequently, the recent crisis has done nothing if not making the situation worse in terms of Euroscepticism, the sole hope for the future is that the reforms put in place by the European institution would work and that they will be well communicated to the Italian citizens that they will start to realize that basically the European union is doing something.
The above-mentioned example is clear indicator that there is a concerning problem at the European Union level in terms of integration. These issues may potentially lead to some “victories” from the part of nationalist parties and persuade even more instability in the Union.
In my opinion, as it is often encountered in any other law matter, we tend to speak more about right and we kindly avoid the part of obligations. Even though political liberalism is one of the key freedoms in a democratic society like European Union, we must emphasise one of the core principles of European Union which is the principle of subsidiarity. In terms of Euroscepticism, it is transformed in an active European obligation of the Member States to actively engage in promoting the Union’s agenda.
We do not need any PR offices in Brussels, but we need actions on the ground, in the respective countries, communities, regions and at the local level. What is why the role of civil society is important, the one who knows what the European Union is all about, because in the end they are also responsible in implementing all these policies.
As far the matter of Euroscepticism is rather complex and it is evolving in time, I would like to leave it by an open question addressed by the Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen “Can we come out stronger from this fragile position?”[8]
[1] Eurobarometer No. 33, PUBLIC OPINION IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY, available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/eb/eb33/eb33_en.pdf accessed 12.04.2021.
[2] The removal of barriers between different jurisdictions, things that prevent people, countries, and institutions from communicating or working together.
[3] Kaeding, Michael, Pollak, Johannes, Schmidt, Paul, Euroscepticism and the Future of Europe. p. 4.
[4] Beyond Coronabonds: A New Constituent for Europe, available at:
https://www.iai.it/en/pubblicazioni/beyond-coronabonds-new-constituent-europe accessed 12.04.2021.
[5] The European Post, “Italy, SWG poll, 20 March-12 April”, Twitter post, available at: https://twitter.com/theEUpost/status/1251064470782304259. accessed 17 April 2020.
[6] SputniV: Why hase’t the EU approved Russia’s COVID vaccine yet? Available at: https://www.euronews.com/2021/02/20/sputnik-v-why-hasn-t-the-eu-approved-russia-s-covid-vaccine-yet accessed 12.04.2021.
[7] The European Post…
[8] State of the Union Address by President von der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_20_1655 accessed on 12.04.2021.
