Invisible social Europe? Linking citizens’ awareness of European cohesion funds, individual power resources, and support for the EU

Abstract

In the twentieth century national social policies stabilized the European state systems, favouring domestic concordance and citizens’ support to the nation-building process. Welfare institutions have historically served this key political function also in federal systems, where social citizenship has been used as a tool to foster unity. In contrast, even though the EU devotes a consistent part of its (however limited) budget to social cohesion and inclusion programmes, it takes little credit for such efforts. Building on original survey data on public opinion collected in 2019 across ten EU countries, this article shows that, indeed, only a limited number of citizens are aware of the social role played by the EU in their local community. On the other hand, it demonstrates that citizens’ awareness of EU programmes strengthens the individual perception of power resources stemming from euro-social initiatives, the feeling of ‘being heard’ by the EU and, ultimately, the support for the European integration project as a whole. By implication, increasing the relevance and visibility of euro-social programmes could possibly reinforce the very foundations of the EU.

The hidden side of Social Europe: Revealing welfare Euroscepticism through focus group discussions

“…Generally, it is well known in the literature that individuals have limited access to accurate and relevant information about the EU, which contributes to a lack of political knowledge and engagement with EU‐related issues (Clark, 2014; Brosius et al, 2019; Natili et al, 2023). The EU is also sometimes criticized for its democratic deficit, which can be seen as a result of the EU's complex decision‐making processes and the fact that the EU's political institutions are not directly accountable to citizens.…”