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The dissertation deals with the conflict over the EU Services Directive which is also known as the Bolkestein Directive. The general liberalisation and deregulation of the services markets in the EU has known the greatest politicisation of an EU issue ever seen in the history of European politics. It mobilised a wide range of political actors, including unions, diverse associations and citizen groups in several member states of the EU as well as in Brussels. The Commissioner for the internal market Frits Bolkestein and the directive proposal adopted in January 2004 have come to epitomize the neoliberal face of European integration. Due to its connection with the Eastern enlargement in May 2004 and with the ratification of the European constitutional treaty in France and The Netherlands in 2005, the directive proposal on services liberalization triggered a general debate over the economic and social nature of the EU polity far beyond a mere matter of public policy. After three years of debate and mobilization, the directive proposal was substantially amended in the European Parliament and clear limitations were put to liberalization of the services of general interest and to market deregulation. The puzzle at the core of this conflict is that of political and social resistances to some aspects of EU integration, and more specifically, to integration my means of market liberalization. The “Bolkestein debate” constitutes a major moment of political crisis where, for the first time, protest and public mobilization could have a significant impact on the EU decision-making process. The design of this research is original in three respects. Firstly, it provides a new analytical perspective while refuting the relevance of theorization in terms of Euroscepticism. It puts forward the notion of resistances which acknowledges the intrinsically multi-faceted and contentious nature of the integration process and anchors hostility towards the EU into the wider historical context of resistance to the transformation of economic spaces and political systems. Thus, it aims at making research on the issues at stake much less normative. Secondly, it combines three strands of literature which are both relevant with respect to the study of resistances but nevertheless remain two compartmentalized research fields: namely social movement and contentious politics studies, literature about public policies and European studies. For so doing, thirdly, the dissertation is grounded on a comprehensive theoretical model which amends the famous model of the “three Is”: instead of explaining political processes in terms of interests, institutions and ideas, the concept of interests is substituted by that of interactions. Hence, the emphasis is put on the relationships between the various actors involved and the role of ideas conveyed in discursive interactions. This meso-level theoretical and empirical perspective allows to bridge the gap between, on the one hand, a sociological approach which is very present in the French-speaking political science and, on the other hand, the neo-institutional perspective throwing light on broader dynamics in the European political system and which prevails in the American and international realm. Eventually, the dissertation demonstrates the powerful role of ideas conveyed by actors in specific institutional settings. At the institutional level, it confirms the existence of networks and mobilisation dynamics for the politicization of EU political issues beyond national borders, as well as the central role of the European Parliament with respect the impact of mobilisation on decision-making. At the ideational level, it reveals that the idea of Social Europe, on the one hand, and the shared culture of democracy and parliamentarism, on the other, can efficiently legitimize protest against integration.

European integration was for a long time perceived as an elite-driven project that received public acceptance through what was coined as the permissive consensus. With the expansion of the domain of community actions and capacities, and the turmoil in the ratification processes following changes of the treaties, an increased public contestation over European integration can be observed. European integration now covers policy areas that are more prone to political debate and polarization. The weak public support for the EU has not been matched by electoral support for Eurosceptic parties. Hence, this mismatch increases the political opportunity structures for political entrepreneurs wishing to profit from the public dissent regarding the integration process. This study focuses on the conditions under which European integration is politicized, where politicization refers more specifically to party-politicization. Political parties that oppose the EU and their electoral fortunes are used as a proxy for the politicization of European integration. It is a comparative study over time (1984-2009) and space (14 member states) which assesses the conditional power of a number of enabling and constraining institutional factors that influence the variation in number of Eurosceptic parties, success of those parties, and the success of single-issue Eurosceptic parties over time and space. The analysis demonstrates the importance of the party system features and the use of referendum over European integration for the emergence of party-based Euroscepticism. It also places special emphasis on the combination of factors and their impact on the outcome. The study relates the findings to the democratic credentials of the European Union, with special reference to the role of opposition and representation.

British Labour Party&rsquo / s attitudes and policies towards European integration have historically oscillated between varying degrees of support for concrete integration steps and obstinate opposition to it. A major and pronounced volte-face on European policy occurred after 1983 and the aim of this study is to locate the causes of this shift in European policy and its subsequent course under &lsquo / New&rsquo / Labour period. The causes and motivations are searched within the general transformation of the party and they are assessed according to the changes in party&rsquo / s ideology and its perceptions about the needs of British national political economy. The scope of the study covers the intersection area between intra/inter-party politics and political economy. On these areas, Neo-Marxist theories of state and Regulation Approach are utilised, as well as the classical political sociology models on party politics. An historical inquiry on party policy encompassing the post-war period has been undertaken. In a similar vein, in order to compare it on ideological grounds, other European social democratic-socialist party policies are analysed alongside the British Labour case. It is argued that party&rsquo / s policy preferences are strongly influenced by and shaped according to the national socio-political institutional structure. The thesis comes to the conclusion that historical institutionalist analysis coupled with a &lsquo / structural dependency to capital&rsquo / theory offers a highly plausible explanation for the evolution of Labour Party&rsquo / s policy course on Europe, including the recent &lsquo / New&rsquo / Labour period.

ABSTRACT Dynamics of Youth Euroscepticism K&uuml / &ccedil / &uuml / kural, &Ouml / nder M.Sc., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Dr. Mustafa Sen December 2005, 138 pages The aim of this thesis is to describe the dominant features of Euroscepticism in Turkish context and to understand its main dynamics with special reference to a particular group, the youth in Turkey. A field research was conducted in order to understand youth&rsquo / s EU support. The field research involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques in order to attain multi-layered perspectives on Euroscepticism. The research is representative at a country-scale and the participants were 4542 senior students of high schools in twelve cities of Turkey. One of the striking findings of the research was the high percentage of Euro-optimists when the survey was applied and the dominance of Eurosceptic discourse during one to one and group interviews. According to the research results two strands appear to be dominant in youth&rsquo / s Euroscepticism. The first is moral degeneration discourse that is articulated by a threat perception to Turkey&rsquo / s culture and lifestyle. The second one is nationalist discourse that is expressed by threat perception to the unity and integrity of the nation and the state. Considering the main motivation of the youth in their appropriation of these two discourses I argued that the identity theories provide plausible explanations for the understanding of this phenomenon. The identity is formed around the &ldquo / we&rdquo / concepts that are mainly derived from Turkish nationalism and culture. Besides, the Turkish state&rsquo / s founding principles and the atmosphere created during the 80&rsquo / s and onwards seems to contribute to this construction.

This study investigates whether there is a link between the successful implementation of European cohesion policy and the voters' attitudes towards the EU. Using the French presidential elections in 2017 as a case study, we do not solely consider regional funds expenditures but also its induced effects in a region as further potential determinant of pro-European or eurosceptic voting behavior. In order to measure the effectiveness of EU structural funds and Cohesion Fund assignment, firm-level employment effects in French NUTS-2 regions stemming from project allocation during the multi-annual financial framework 2007-2013 are estimated. The obtained average treatment effects are, in a next step, used together with other regional characteristics to capture the citizens' perceived exposure to the EU in an empirical voting model for the French presidential election in 2017. The estimation results reveal a significant negative relationship between the effectiveness of EU funds allocation and the vote share of the eurosceptic candidate Marine Le Pen. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This thesis analyzes how the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the European Union was portrayed in selected Czech and German printed media throughout the year 2018 and investigates whether Euroscepticism - in its widest sense - expresses itself within the articles. The research on Euroscepticism in media so far has largely focused on "historic" events and "significant" questions of the European integration, not on technical-legal topics, i.e. topics with presumably lesser impact on the future course of the European project. An analysis of Euroscepticism in media texts dealing with a specific EU legislative act has so far been lacking. The paper at hand therefore examines whether Euroscepticism manifests itself also in connection to such topics. As denying and/or criticizing EU's policies is accepted by most academics as an expression of Euroscepticism, next to denying the EU as such, this study defines Euroscepticism as any criticism on part of the EU and the GDPR, since this regulation can be understood as embodiment of EU's policy on data protection. The paper uses a comparative research design, using the method of content analysis of six printed daily newspapers, namely Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bild, Mladá fronta DNES, Právo, and Blesk. The results...

The thesis deals with analysis of parties′ documents of four Czech Eurosceptic political parties. The goal is to divide political parties into groups of different levels of Euroscepticism, based on attitudes of political party to European Integration according to typology of Euroscepticism by Paul Taggart and Aleks Szczerbiak. Authors made division of "soft" and "hard" Euroscepticism, which divides political parties by depth of negative positions and attitudes towards European Integration and European union. Furthermore, the thesis answers several research questions and hypothesis. Thesis analyses party documents for election to European Parliament in 2014 and 2019. Examined political actors are Communist party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Free Citizens Party (SSO), and Dawn of Direct Democracy - Tomio Okamura (Dawn)/Freedom and Direct Democracy- Tomio Okamura (SPD). Because of the principal role of leader, SPD is considered for the ongoing Dawn movement in this thesis. Keywords : Euroscepticism, Czech political parties, party documents Title: Euroscepticism of Czech Political Parties

During the last decade, the European Union has had to overcome several types of crises, for example, the economic crisis, the Eurozone crisis, the migration crisis, and Brexit. Currently, the EU is facing the Covid-19 pandemic. It is well known that there is a strong relationship between the multifaceted crises and the EU’s responses to them and increased Euroscepticism in the EU countries as a result. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the reasons why such crises result in increasing Euroscepticism. More specifically, the study explores the mechanisms that can be identified as causes for Euroscepticism. To test the hypothesis that the crises’ responses made by the EU created an opportunity for Eurosceptic actors to thrive, a process-analysis of the responses was conducted. Three legislative acts as main responses to the economic crisis and the migration crisis were chosen, to analyze a mechanism between the crises and increased Euroscepticism in the EU member states. The responses were then combined with data on the EU citizens’ trust for the EU to identify if the EU’s responses to these crises have been a major cause for increased Eurosceptic tendencies. The results show that even though some of the EU’s responses to the crises resulted in increased Euroscepticism, EU citizens do not seem to lose their trust in the EU or their institutions in the long run.

The Euroscepticism is a very popular issue now. Its popularity has risen because of inability of European states to solve the crisis since the start of the Eurozone crisis. This thesis is based on analysis of party program documents and other statements. It attempts to capture the increase in Euroscepticism among German political parties. The public opinion is taking into account as well. Germany has become one of the main actors in the search for ways out of the crisis. This role associated with some financial burden has led to series of discussion and to the growth of skepticism among the political parties. The European Stability Mechanism was the one of the most discussed topics. The crisis provoked uncertainty and skepticism among the German public as well. This scepticism was largely influenced by the actual situation in the Eurozone. In direct response to the crisis a new political movement was created. It was called the Alternative for Germany. The Alternative for Germany rejected remaining in the Eurozone. It reached some success in provincial elections in 2014. There were more reasons for its success which not just correspondent with its eurosceptic agenda. The thesis identifies these reasons as well. Despite this situation, Germany remains a pro-European state.