UK's exit from the EU presented the European project with a new situation. However, fears that more member states would follow UK’s example were overcome by increased support for EU membership in Sweden. The Left Party and the Sweden Democrats have moved from wanting to leave the EU to accepting Swedish EU-membership. Previous research in this area has focused on how parties position themselves for or against European integration as an idea on the one hand and the EU as an institutionalization process of these ideas on the other hand. Little research has been done on how Eurosceptic counterparts in Europe react to exit, as the UK is the first country to leave the EU. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how the Swedish Left Party and the Sweden Democrats have changed their position on the EU issue in connection with Brexit and consider an ideological dimension. The qualitative research of election platforms results in three conclusions. First, both parties remain in their fundamental criticism of the EU but see Brexit as a new opportunity to reform the EU fundamentally. Secondly, the pause on demands for a Swedish withdrawal from the EU may be based on an ideological dividing line. Thirdly, the parties problematize the EU in a similar way but from different angles, which further strengthens an assumption about the importance of ideology in the study of Euroscepticism.

This study departs from a cleavage-theory by Kriesi et al. in which the globalization and the European integration divides Europeans in winners and losers through a political, a cultural and an economic mechanism (2012). It examines the connection between the polarization following the integration and the support for political systems using Norris’ framework from Democratic deficit (2012) which differs on five levels of support. The main findings show that the polarization has an impact on four out of five levels through the cultural mechanism and that it thus not only may generate support for right-wing populism as shown by Kriesi with more, but for right-wing extremism as well. Even though the effect is limited the results also suggests that the decreasing trust in political institutions in Europe is not to be reduced to normal a fluctuation.

Den Europeiska Unionen är i ständig politisk utveckling och så är även den svenska opinionens förhållningssätt till det europeiska samarbetet. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilka attityder till EU som finns representerade i ledarsidor i tidningarna Proletären, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet och Samtiden, under det första kvartalet av 2019. Dessa fem tidningar representerar olika sidor av det politiska landskapet i Sverige. Uppsatsen visar också vilka sakpolitiska frågor och pågående politiska processer som ledarsidornas diskussioner om EU anknyter till. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys tillämpats. När det gäller sakpolitiska frågor kretsar den svenska EU-debatten framför allt kring migration, medan andra frågor som rör EU behandlas mer sporadiskt i enskilda tidningar. Ledarsidornas debatt var däremot mer riktad åt större politiska processer som kretsade kring Brexit, EU:s demokratiska utveckling och EU-valet. I samtliga diskussioner har de identifierade attityderna analyserats med stöd utav en multidimensionell teori av Boomgaarden et al. (2011) som förklarar hur attityder formas. Studien kommer fram till slutsatsen att det finns en förhållandevis utbredd euroskepticism mot unionens funktionssätt, men att skepticismen sällan är av principiellt slag. EU:s demokratiska underskott identifieras som en framträdande orsak till det kritiska förhållningssättet. Trots kritiken har de politiska mittentidningarna Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet en positiv framtidsvision för Sverige i EU. De mest negativa attityderna finns på den politiska ytterkanten både till höger och vänster, där den vänsterradikala tidningen Proletären utmärker sig i att vilja förkasta hela unionen, medan Samtiden snarare intar en mer kritisk hållning än mittentidningarna.

<p>This Bachelor thesis deals with the act of the British Labour Party when they recalled a referendum promised by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Tony Blair promised a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty, but his successor Gordon Brown later recalled it when the Lisbon Treaty succeeded the Constitutional Treaty as the legal foundation of the European Union.</p><p>The main purpose of this thesis was to with help from various theorethical frameworks explain why the Labour Party decided to do this, even if this decision gave the main opposition party, the Conservative and Unionist Party (the Tories), the chance to heavily critisize the Labour Party, and picture them as traitors.</p><p>The research questions were:</p><p>• What are the reasons that the Labour Party went from being a Eurosceptical party, to become more pro-European?</p><p>• Why did the Labour Party cancel the promised referendum on the new treaty of the European Union?</p><p>Various answers were found for the first research question. Among the most important was that it was a part of the over all transition which led to the launch of <em>New Labour</em>.</p><p>The second research question was answered with three explanatory models based on actions of the Labour Party on three arenas; the electoral arena (based on power, this model claims that the Labour Party act as they do because the know the Tories would not act differently if they were in office), the parliamentary arena (based on ideology, this model claims that Labour want the Lisbon Treaty because it has a stronger social dimension than earlier treaties) and the internal arena (based on the problem of identification, this model claims that the Labour Party identifies itself with the British government, and not just the voters, and are afraid of damaging Britain’s influence in the EU and international politics if Britain says ‘no’ to the Lisbon Treaty).</p>

Flyktingkrisen 2015 avslöjade stora brister inom EU:s och medlemsstaternas asylsystem. Belastningen på medlemsstaterna var ojämn och gemensamma regelverk ignorerades. Utifrån tidigare forskning kan faktorer som avsaknad av stark struktur inom EU, låg harmonisering bland medlemsstater, försvagat gemensamt europeiskt intresse utgöra orsaker till bristerna under flyktingkrisen. Sedan dess har man inte lyckats uppnå en överenskommelse om hur EU:s gemensamma asylstrategi ska utformas. Uppsatsen har för avsikt att undersöka hur svårigheterna att komma överens om en gemensam asylstrategi kan förstås i statsvetenskapligt perspektiv, genom att analysera den politiska debatten kring kommissionens förslag om en gemensam asylpakt, som ännu inte lett till en fullständig överenskommelse. Undersökningen genomförs i form av kvalitativ innehållsanalys och motivanalys i syfte att identifiera de olika aktörernas ståndpunkter och bakomliggande motiv. Utifrån de identifierade motiven skapas förståelse för den politiska debatten genom det teoretiska ramverket neofunktionalism och intergovernmentalism som söker förklaringar på europeisk integration. Det empiriska materialet för studien omfattas av textdokument och inspelade panelsamtal och analysen identifierar motiv utifrån tre fördefinierade kategorier som sedan genomlyses med det teoretiska ramverket. Slutsatsen är att intergovernmentalism bäst förklarar svårigheterna genom att lösningar som ger vinning för nationalstaterna saknas vilket inte möjliggör en fullständig överenskommelse med fördjupad integration. Neofunktionalismen kan ge vissa förklaringar, kommissionen som pådrivande aktör kan utgöra en faktor för fördjupad integration, men de beslutsfattande församlingarna präglas av nationella och ideologiska intressen som inte leder till fördjupat samarbete. Dessutom ger neofunktionalismen utrymme för bakslag i en pågående integrationsprocess vilket kan förklara en tillfälligt avstannad integration i och med svårigheterna att uppnå en fullständig överenskommelse om gemensam asylpakt.

As the main operational tool of the EU Cohesion Policy, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aims to invest in regional development initiatives at the regional administrative level in the member states. Hence, governed by European legal regulations, the ERDF tend to initiate policy change and policy adaptionconcerning regional development policies on the regional administrative level. Consequently, this thesis addresses the issue concerning through which functions the ERDF influences the Regional Development Strategy for Västra Götaland 2021–2030, which constitutes the operative strategy on regional development policy in Västra Götaland, including goals, priorities, and methods. By utilizing Europeanization as theoretical framework, constituted by three factors of Europeanization, concerning a supranational factor, a multilevel governance-factor and a policy network-factor, the ERDF functions influencing the strategy were distinguished and explained. Through a theory consuming analysis, this thesis conclude that the ERDF influences the regional development strategy for Västra Götaland through three functions; through the incorporation of European discourses into the strategy, which were established by the European legal acts governing the ERDF; through the multilevel governance system managing the ERDF, which has generated an institutionalized system of cooperation between European, national and regional levels for the management of regional development policies; and,through the need to cooperate in a policy network in order to implement the ERDF regionally, as well as accomplish the regional development strategy.

The aim with this thesis is to find out how one can understand the exceptions not to introduce the euro as the currency of Denmark and the United Kingdom, as well as their attitude to European integration. It has been implemented in a comparative case study using theories in which the case has been the central focus of the investigation. The theories being used is rational actor model that emphasizes rational decision-making and self-interest. In comparison to that theory has a historical institutional perspective been used, which emphasizes path-dependency and critical events. The focus of the study is the time when the countries became members of the European Economic Community in 1973 to the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 where these exceptions not to introduce the euro as the currency was ratified. In the analysis section, one can see portions of both theories to a varying degree. The conclusions of the study is that both countries show a skeptical attitude to European integration and that the exceptions to not introduce the euro as a currency is based on this critical view of moving power to centralized institutions.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine which factors that can explain the variation in EU citizens support for a larger integration of social issues within the EU from a country perspective where 18 EU countries are included in the statistical analysis. The thesis is based on five theoretical assumptions in order to try to explain the variation in the citizen´s support between different EU countries for more decision-making at an EU level for health and social security issues. To study these relations, a multivariate regression analysis is used. The result shows that none of the theoretical assumptions can explain the differences between citizens' support for a more social Europe. The thesis complementary bivariate Pearson R-tests show, on the other hand, that there is a correlation between support for the national government and values for cognitive mobilization (how politically interested citizens are and how often citizens discuss EU issues) and the support for more decision-making at the EU level. However, the result show a opposite direction for the correlations than the theoretical assumptions of the thesis initiates. This emphasizes the relevance of the theoretical framework of this thesis; the concept of response variability, which means that citizens are ambivalent in their support towards different EU issues. Because earlier research for some of the variables are based on theories of european integration from a one dimensional perspective and not from a policy-specific perspective for increased social integration, there is an important difference between these theoretical bases that stand in conflict with each other.

The starting point of this study is theories of European integration, which are used to formulate different scenarios about the future of the European Union. This is made in regards to the eurocrisis which has intensified the discussion about how to change the construction of the euro to overcome the economic difficulties that has arisen. In this study, four different scenarios are presented: "An updated Europe", "A new Europe", "The death of the euro" and "Goodbye Greece". The first two scenarios takes its starting point in the neofunctionalist theory of European integration and describes how the EU might increase its level of integration in different ways. We can either see a development where the EU tries to improve the implementation of the rules that are meant to coordinate the member states’ economic policy, or we might encounter a more advanced integration where fiscal policy competences are transferred to the EU-level. The latter scenarios, however, takes another theory in to account, liberal intergovernmentalism, and describes how the eurozone might be fragmented in different ways due to conflicts of interest between lenders and countries that has to receive loan-packages. In the third scenario the euro stands in front of a collapse. This is connected to a situation where Spain, which is one of the largest economies in the EU, is starting to have similar problems as countries like Grecce, Ireland and Portugal. The fourth scenario describes a more ordered progress where Grecce, as part of a joint decision with the other EU-members, decides to abolish the euro as their currency. This is a way for the EU to reduce its economic burden, in the same time as Greece are given an opportunity to use an independent monetary policy to cope with their problematic situation.

Tidigare studier har noterat att svenska folkets motstånd mot fördjupad europeisk integration kan härledas från deras värnandet av välfärdsstaten. Ytterligare studier har funnit att prioriteringen av vissa mänskliga värderingar leder till att individen värderar välfärdsstaten i högre utsträckning. Denna undersökning gör ett försök att bredda förståelsen för hur prioriteringen av vissa mänskliga värderingar kan påverka individen att antingen ha en gynnsam eller ogynnsam syn på välfärdsstaten, och som därmed påverkar individernas stöd för fördjupad europeisk integration. Detta görs genom att använda Schwartz värderingsteori för att initialt skilja mellan Self-transcendence värderingar och Self-enhancement värderingar och analysera deras direkta effekt på stödet för fördjupad europeisk integration. En andra analys görs för att mäta de indirekta effekterna av mänskliga värderingar, kanaliserad genom attityder till välfärdsstaten, på stöd för fördjupad europeisk integration. Data för denna undersökning består av sekundärdata från ESS omgång 9 och använder ett urval av svenska respondenter på N=1474. / Previous studies have noted that swedish opposition to further European integration can be derived from their emphasis on and the importance they place upon the domestic welfare state. Further studies have shown that the prioritization of certain human values will lead the individual to regard the welfare state in a higher respect. This paper will make an attempt to broaden the understanding of how the prioritization of certain human values can influence the individual to have a favorable or unfavorable view of the welfare state, and therefore effect the individuals' support for further European integration. This is done by utilizing Schwartz value theory to initially distinguish between Self-transcendence values and Self-enhancement values and analyze their direct effect on support for further European integration. A second analysis is performed to measure the indirect effects of human values channeled through attitudes to the welfare state on support for further European integration. The data for this paper consists of secondary data provided by ESS round 9 and uses a selection of swedish respondents with a N=1474.