Eurosceptisme politieke partijen neemt Europabreed toe

Onder druk van hun kiezer worden nationale partijen in Europa steeds eurokritischer. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van Lucie Spanihelova and Brandon Zicha, uitgevoerd onder auspiciën van het Montesquieu Instituut.

In lidstaten van de Europese Unie bewegen nationale partijen mee met de publieke wens om Europese zaken scherper te beoordelen. In het algemeen zijn ze gevoelig voor druk van kiezers: 'Parties seem to perform relatively well in responding to public's demand for a tighter scrutiny of issues originating in the EU.'

Nationale partijen binnen Europa hebben in verhouding weinig aandacht voor Europese onderwerpen. Aan de ene kant begrijpelijk vanwege de toenemende EU-scepsis onder de Europese kiezers, aan de andere kant verwonderlijk omdat naar schatting 50 tot 70 procent van de nationale wetgeving beïnvloed wordt door Europa.

De onderzoekers komen op basis van een aantal makro-politieke modellen tot de conclusie dat nationale partijen wel degelijk inspelen van zowel positieve als negatieve Europese gevoelens. Juist bij verkiezingen zetten politieke partijen Europees getinte onderwerpen op de agenda onder druk van zowel eurofielen als eurosceptici. Als het aantal critici groeit, bewegen partijen mee.

When Do the Political Parties in Member States Encourage Tighter Scrutiny of EU legislation?

Lucie Spanihelova

In any democratic system, political parties are one of the primary institutions through which the will of the public can be effectively translated into government action. From the legislative process to bureaucratic routines, political parties play the role of conflict mediators as well as primary actors in proposing policies, preventing unfavorable acts from becoming policy, and scrutinizing the government and bureaucracy's implementation of those policies. When an issue is held to be important by party's public statements it stands to reason that those are the issues that will receive more consistent and direct attention in government proceedings. However, when will issues of critical interest to Europe become important to parties, and how is this importance translated into policy action?

National political parties in EU member states have developed a reputation as somewhat reluctant players when it comes to issues of European integration. The issue of Europe has rarely found substantial voice in national or European election campaigns. This is so even despite recent downward shifts in many European public’s approval of European integration. Meanwhile, the proportion of EU legislation that directly and indirectly affects national legislation has steadily risen since adoption of Maastricht Treaty. While the estimates vary substantially among particular EU countries, the proportion is frequently estimated between 50 to 70% in some EU member states.

These trends are worrisome and beg questions whether European public has been losing its direct say over a growing number of policy areas that have gradually moved under EU’s discretion. Furthermore, a perhaps equally pressing question is whether national political parties satisfactorily perform their role of translating public preferences into policy outcomes. Recent research conducted at the Montesquieu Institute by Lucie Spanihelova and Brandon Zicha suggests that despite these concerning trends, parties seem to perform relatively well in responding to public’s demand for a tighter scrutiny of issues originating in the EU. In a series of macropolitical statistical models, the researchers show that when a national public is particularly focused on the actions of the EU and view such actions to be important, this signal is received by national political parties.  These parties place issues of the EU more prominently in their public appeals during election time.  Interestingly, the direction of this concern – being particularly favorable or unfavorable to the European project - seem to have little impact on the prominence given to the EU by political parties.