The Politicization of European Union Trade Policy: Radical-Left Euroskeptic Opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
This study aims to analyze the correlation between radical-left Euroskeptic (RLE) activity and European Union (EU) trade policy by focusing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At the beginning of TTIP negotiations, the agreement was not high on political agendas and was not a major concern within European society. Thus, its salience was low. This initial lack of interest stemmed from the fact that the TTIP, as an economic and technical issue, did not draw public attention. This study shows that RLEs profoundly affected public opinion on the TTIP by increasing its salience during the European parliamentary elections in 2014 in France and Germany. Second, RLEs involv…
Eurosceptic Attitudes Towards the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Who are the Trendsetters and Followers?
Since the Hooghe et al.(2002) publication about party positions on European integration, a comparison of radical right and radical left Eurosceptic parties is not often conducted. In literature about Euroscepticism, the image of the horseshoe or “inverted U” illustrates the orientation of Euroscepticism among parties without any deeper analysis. This paper tries fill the research gap by investigating whether these two Eurosceptic groups are distinct from each other in the area of EU trade policy by analyzing the debate surrounding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Using European Parliament debates about this EU-US partnership, the author tries give answers to the fo…
The European Union as a normal international actor: an analysis of the EU Global Strategy
For a long time, the European Union (EU) has been described by many scholars and policymakers as a civilian and a normative power. This article argues that these concepts do not accurately capture the foreign policy behaviour of the EU as prescribed in the European Union Global Strategy (EUGS). It first situates EU identity and role played in international relations within role strain theory. Then, it notes that the EU has difficulties fulfilling duties connected with its international identity and role. The second part of the article uses three indicators to examine whether the EU is pursuing ‘normal’ international actor status or not, drawing on the Strategy and relevant literature to do …
Visegrad Euroscepticism: Discursive Nodal Points in Eurosceptic Discourses Surrounding External Actions of the European Union
Increasing support for Eurosceptic parties and movements can be observed in the European Union’s (EU) member states since 2009, when the economic crisis heavily affected the continent. This process has happened also within Central and Eastern European countries, especially in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary (collectively referred to as the Visegrad Group countries, or V4 for short). The goal of this paper is an analysis of far-right Eurosceptic politicians and their attitudes towards EU external actions. Using the Thomas Diez concept of discursive nodal points (DNPs) and examining European Parliament (EP) debates, literature about V4 Euroscepticism and media reports, this p…