Sub-group name: The limited impact of Euroscepticism.

Rationale and objectives:

To explore, at both national and EU levels, why Euroscepticism has not been a more potent force in influencing the direction of the EU. More specifically we are interested in addressing questions such as how far public Euroscepticism influences national parties’ and governments’ policies towards the EU, what limitations being in office, as opposed to opposition, place on parties with a Eurosceptic outlook, how significant divisions among Eurosceptics are in limiting the influence of this approach and what influence Eurosceptics have in the European Parliament. Furthermore, we are interested in engaging not only with academic researchers but also practitioners in political parties and EU institutions.

Potential activities and outputs, and timeframe:

We plan a one day workshop most likely in June 2012 at the University of Leicester, bringing together scholars working as well as practitioners from among Eurosceptic political parties. Beyond this we will look to organise panels at conferences in 2013 such as at the ECPR general conference, PSA and UACES. Furthermore, we hope to use the group as a basis for developing a collaborative bid for research funding and outputs from the group could possibly form the basis of an edited volume at some point in the future.

Contacts:

Ben Clements (bc101@leicester.ac.uk), Philip Lynch (PLL3@leicester.ac.uk) and Richard Whitaker (rcw11@leicester.ac.uk)