Analyses

The Analyses section provides brief research notes relating to four main streams: social media, political visions, public opinion and policy focus.

28 January 2020

The economic dimension in the electoral programmes of European political groups

By Pietro Regazzoni

The last European Parliament election campaign benefited from a greater interest on the part of EU citizens in the May 2019 European elections than previous elections; economic issues were at the core of citizens’ concerns. Do the electoral manifestos presented by the European political groups reflect these concerns?

20 January 2020

Europe and the welfare state in the debate about Italian budgetary law

By Francesco Castelli

No more than one year ago, the Italian government – at the time supported by a Yellow Green majority, with the Five Star Movement and the League as main shareholders – and the EU Commission were fighting a long battle over the Italian national budget. With the EU denouncing the substantial imbalances in the Italian budget draft and the Conte cabinet defending its budget ‘for the people’, social policies and welfare were de facto bones of contention between Rome and Brussels. We use Twitter communication data to try to shed light on how the political debate on this topic unfolded.

9 December 2019

EU-related discussions in 2019 Spanish general elections: a Twitter study

By Francesco Castelli

On April 28 Spanish citizens went to the polls to renew the Cortes Generales, the Spanish bicameral parliament. The 2019 ballot has been a peculiar one for at least two reasons: on the one hand, it has been a snap election, held after the resigning of the Sanchez government and the consequent dissolution of the Parliament. The election campaign was expected to run along two lines: one focused on the urgent internal crisis – tied to the events in Catalonia – and one hinging on the upcoming European elections. Did the Twitter public debate about the Spanish general elections follow these two lines?

2 December 2019

Is free movement a threat or a boost to welfare states?

By Maria Giulia Montanari

Mobile European citizens have been repeatedly alleged to represent a burden on national welfare systems. Nevertheless, this might not emerge to be the case when one considers real data. Leaving public misperceptions about migration aside, this article points out the pros and cons of EU free movement for national welfare budgets.

18 November 2019

Luci sul lavoro: a festival on the future of the labour market – prospects in Italy and the EU

By Francesco Corti

From the 11th to the 13th of July 2019, policymakers and public intellectuals met in Montepulciano to debate the recent developments of labour market policy from the perspective of European social policy.

24 June 2019

The social dimension in the electoral programs of the European political groups

By Giovanni Pagano and Pietro Regazzoni

We analyzed the electoral programs published by the European political groups at the time of the 2014 and 2019 European elections, to shed light on the future path of the social dimension of the European integration.

11 June 2019

European Elections 2019: the Spitzenkandidaten debates as seen from Twitter

By Francesco Castelli

We followed the three main Spitzenkandidaten debates and collected tweets containing the ‘official’ hashtag of each debate or the hashtag #Spitzenkandidaten. The Greens and the ALDE have managed to somehow dominate the Twitter debate during the three debates.

24 May 2019

From cosmopolitans to “Eupolitans”: citizens’ attitudes on welfare before and after Maastricht

By Francesco Visconti

Attitudes towards access to social security benefits have gained importance with the increased salience of EU affairs and immigration. Trans-national solidarity has been reduced from a cosmopolitan to a "Eupolitan" dimension.

24 May 2019

The EU cohesion policy under the next MFF: winners and losers across Europe’s twin peripheries

By Niccolo Donati

For the MFF 2021–2027, Member States have decided not to increase the EU budget, despite the adverse consequences that the Great Recession had on many European territories. As a consequence, cohesion policy, in 2021–2027, will be too small a blanket to cater to the needs of the Eastern and Southern peripheries adequately.

17 April 2019

Integration-through-crisis: The triumph of expediency over democratic legitimacy?

By Nicole Scicluna

Over the past decade, the response given by Member States to the multidimensional European crisis has given rise to a distinct integrative mode, namely ‘integration through crisis’, which may be contrasted with the integration through law that characterised the pre-Maastricht development of the European integration project.

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«Looking at the interactions-per-citizen ratio, people tweeting from smaller countries, such as Cyprus, Malta and Hungary, emerged as the most active in retweeting and replying to MEPs of different nationalities rather than their own. »

Analyses

Analyses

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