Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOCIALEU (The missing pillar. European social policy and Eurosceptic challenges (SOCIALEU))
Reporting period: 2019-12-01 to 2021-11-30
SOCIALEU main research objective is to inquire the impact of a prospective EU social policy on individual Euroscepticism. In particular, the project asks what is the impact of EU unemployment benefit and EU social housing scheme respectively on various indicators of Euroscepticism, such as support for EU membership, EU integration, trust in the EU and vote for anti-EU parties.
The project has an important societal impact as it seeks to understand what are the conditions of support for EU membership and integration. It consequently seeks to revert citizen Euroscepticism and support for anti-EU parties.
Project objectives: In a first stage I analyse the agenda-setting processes on EU unemployment benefit and EU social housing respectively and the emergence of the European Labour Authority (ELA) by a) identifying the advocacy coalitions engaged and their positions on social policy issues that should be regulated at the supranational level; b) analysing the main arguments and strategies used by these coalitions; c) evaluate the formal and informal channels of influence of the main stakeholders involved; d) assess which proposals in the field of supranational unemployment benefit and social housing are likely to enter the policy formulation process. Besides policy document analysis, press research and secondary literature, I conduct semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders from the European Commission, European Parliament, social partners, think tanks, ELA and civil society organisations advocating for social housing investment in the EU.
The findings from this stage (especially point d) inform the experimental design in the second part. Here, I conduct an online survey experiment on 2,000 respondents representative of the national population in Spain and France respectively administered by a specialised company.
The project has an important societal impact as it seeks to understand what are the conditions of support for EU membership and integration. It consequently seeks to revert citizen Euroscepticism and support for anti-EU parties.
Project objectives: In a first stage I analyse the agenda-setting processes on EU unemployment benefit and EU social housing respectively and the emergence of the European Labour Authority (ELA) by a) identifying the advocacy coalitions engaged and their positions on social policy issues that should be regulated at the supranational level; b) analysing the main arguments and strategies used by these coalitions; c) evaluate the formal and informal channels of influence of the main stakeholders involved; d) assess which proposals in the field of supranational unemployment benefit and social housing are likely to enter the policy formulation process. Besides policy document analysis, press research and secondary literature, I conduct semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders from the European Commission, European Parliament, social partners, think tanks, ELA and civil society organisations advocating for social housing investment in the EU.
The findings from this stage (especially point d) inform the experimental design in the second part. Here, I conduct an online survey experiment on 2,000 respondents representative of the national population in Spain and France respectively administered by a specialised company.
During the first three months of the project the PI worked on the state of the art and started to prepare the fieldwork in Brussels.
The project is the first academic endavour that connects euroscepticism and EU social policy.
I expect to find a negative connection between EU social benefits and Euroscepticism. This indicates that the connection between nation building and welfare are also reproduced at the supranational level.
The project has important implications both for the processes of European integration and the academic research on the topic as it shows an unexplored link between EU support and social policies.
I expect to find a negative connection between EU social benefits and Euroscepticism. This indicates that the connection between nation building and welfare are also reproduced at the supranational level.
The project has important implications both for the processes of European integration and the academic research on the topic as it shows an unexplored link between EU support and social policies.