“More meddling from Brussels is not going to help”: Eurosceptic behaviour in the ECR and ID group in the European Parliament

Författare

Marit Jongepier

Summary, in English

This thesis aims to provide better insight into how Eurosceptic actors operate within the political groups ECR and ID in the European Parliament. Through a qualitative textual analysis inspired by discourse and rhetorical analysis, this within-case study looked at manifestations of cooperative ties between MEPs from ECR and ID, Eurosceptic behaviour, shared identities and group socialisation during plenary debates. The main findings are that there are few manifestations of intra- and interparty cooperation in the speeches but voting results showed that there could be more cooperative behaviour than manifested, mainly in policy areas that are of interest to Eurosceptics. For other policy areas, there is less voting cohesion, which makes cooperation unlikely. The behaviour of Eurosceptics during plenary debates is heterogenous and varies among the MEPs, with some not showing any Euroscepticism and others being highly influenced. The analysis of shared identities also showed varying results, but there is always a clear “other” referring to the European Commission, all the EU institutions, or the opposing side in Parliament. The degree of socialisation also varied, depending on individual choices and the hierarchy of values and goals. The analysed speeches showed that the behaviour of Eurosceptics that did not conform to the institutional norms is constrained by (social) sanctions.

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