While a vast literature has grown up surrounding European elections, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the framing of issues surrounding the project of European integration itself during EP election campaigns. In particular, the dominance of the ‘second order’ model in studies of EP elections, while illuminating underlying questions of partisan competition, has nonetheless also tended to obscure the extent to which such elections offer singularly privileged occasions for observing the patterns of national European discourses seeking both to contest and to legitimate the wider project of European integration. Addressing this gap, the present workshop brings together leading experts on a representative sample of EU member states to examine this year’s EP election campaign. Each national paper will survey the ‘European discourses’ deployed by both ‘mainstream’ and ‘Eurosceptic’ parties during the campaign, as well as situating immediate events relative to the longer-term evolution of national European debates. This, in turn, will permit a broader, comparative ‘mapping’ exercise – seeking to delimit both the geographical and ideological contours of differing representations (and contestations) of European integration.
If you are interested in attending, please contact Dr. Elisabeth Schmitt at the Academy (schmitt@eao-otzenhausen.de ). The conference fee, including overnight accommodation at the Academy on the night of 15 October, is €70 (full rate) or €30 (student rate). Questions about the academic programme may be directed to either of the conference organisers, Prof. Robert Harmsen (robert.harmsen@uni.lu) or Prof. Joachim Schild (schild@uni-trier.de).
