ARENA Report 06/2010
Pieter de Wilde
This article-based dissertation investigates increasing contentiousness of the European Union (EU) as polity and the process of European integration. This may be referred to as ‘politicisation of European integration’ and has been regularly reported in the scholarly literature on European integration. Yet, it remains unclear what exactly is meant with politicisation or how it might affect European integration.
The dissertation aims to contribute by conceptualising the process of politicisation and by theorising how such a process affects relationships of delegation and accountability in the EU. Empirically, an embedded comparative case study is conducted of EU budget debates in the media and parliaments of the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland. Newspaper articles and plenary parliamentary debates are sampled during the negotiations on the three most recent multiannual EU budgets of Delors II (negotiated in 1992), Agenda 2000 (negotiated in 1997 - 1999) and Financial Perspectives 2007-2013 (negotiated in 2004 - 2005). Sampled documents are content analysed using the method of claims making analysis.
ARENA Report 06/2010 (pdf)
ISBN 978-82-93137-78-8 (online) 978-82-93137-28-3 (print)