Integration and disintegration of the European Union: Dynamics of Europeanism and Euroscepticism

• Acronym: IDEU
• Coordinator: The Institute for Social Research in Zagreb
• Financed by: Croatian Science Foundation
• Project duration: February 24, 2020 – February 23, 2025

The question of EU disintegration is becoming increasingly important and there is a growing number of research on the topic, both theoretical and empirical. In this project, the development and dynamics of Europeanism and Euroscepticism will be compared based on an interdisciplinary approach and by employing innovative comparative methodology and for this purpose seldom employed sociological theories. The ideas of Europeanism and Euroscepticism are crucial for understanding the processes of integration and disintegration in the times of intensive social polarization. As part of the project, we plan to conduct qualitative comparison of carriers of Europeanist and Eurosceptic ideas coming from political and intellectual elites in five Member States from different phases of the EU enlargement process (Germany, UK, Spain, Poland, and Croatia). Further on, we will carry out a quantitative comparison of the way in which historical trauma influenced the success of Eurosceptic parties in all EU Member States. The results should contribute to the comprehension of the influence that different historical experiences had on various visions of European integration in divided European societies. The comparison of political and intellectual actors engaged in building supranational identities and their adversaries, in socialist Yugoslavia and the EU, should provide a deeper understanding of integrational and disintegrational processes in supranational organizations. The research and dissemination activities of the project should contribute to the de-ideologization of European integration and European identity debates within the scientific and broader community.