Europe's Great Divide. A geo-economic-political map. LEQS Discussion Paper No. 101/2015 December 2015

Farina, Francesco and Tamborini, Roberto (2015) Europe's Great Divide. A geo-economic-political map. LEQS Discussion Paper No. 101/2015 December 2015. [Discussion Paper]

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Abstract

It is now widely agreed that an important driver of the European economic crisis has been the faulty original design of the Monetary Union, and that substantial steps are urgently needed towards the creation of truly European fiscal institutions. The notorious stumbling block along this path is political will. By cross-referencing the results of the 2014 elections of the European Parliament with Eurobarometer opinion polls and an indicator of economic pain, we argue that Europe experiences an unresolved tension between "more Europe" and "less Europe" at the level of European peoples. Data analysis at the country level reveals a surge of what we call Europe's Great Divide, a geo-economic-political cleavage across the EU and across the EZ as well. This is more complex, and perhaps worse, than the simplistic divide between "North" and "South" or "Core" and "Periphery", and it seriously undermines support for ‘more Europe’ "from below".

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