The Project

The COVID EU Project

On 6 April 2020, Angela Merkel declared that the “COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge for the European Union in its entire history”. For the European Union (EU) in particular, the challenge was stark as the early measures taken in response to the crisis - closing borders and restricting travel - could be seen to roll back core aspects of European integration. As the economic consequences of the pandemic became more apparent, the crisis put greater pressures on the EU’s ability to coordinate an effective response to the economic downturn. This raises important questions about how an exogenous shock, such as this pandemic, affects public support for the EU. In this project, we therefore investigate how this crisis has influenced Eurosceptic attitudes, solidarity with fellow Europeans and the electoral performance of Eurosceptic parties.

To study how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced EU support, we develop an innovative theoretical framework that combines insights from political behaviour, social psychology and political communication. We study the impact of the pandemic through six work packages that are clustered into three pillars. In the first pillar, we investigate how the policy measures adopted by national governments and EU institutions have affected eurosceptic attitudes, European solidarity and the performance of Eurosceptic parties. In the second pillar, we examine how political actors, namely governments, political parties and social movements have influenced EU support. Finally, in pillar three, we study how media framing and fake news have influenced public support.

Here you can learn more about our six different work packages (two for each pillar).

What we refer to as EU support is related to three different outcomes:

  • Eurosceptic attitudes defined as scepticism towards European integration and European institutions.

  • The electoral performance of Eurosceptic parties.

  • European solidarity defined as the preparedness to share resources and risks with other Europeans.

Why is it important?

Studying how the corona crisis has affected EU support is important for two reasons.

  1. Our project will generate important insights into how the EU can be made more resilient in future crises. Questions of how to design policy instruments to address a crisis, how to coordinate policy responses among member states and how to communicate to the public are questions that are of utmost relevance to any future crisis. Our project will therefore allow us to provide policy-makers with evidence-based recommendations on how to maintain and even increase popular support for the EU in times of crises and to ultimately ensure the future viability of the EU.

  2. Studying public opinion towards the EU in response to COVID-19 provides a unique opportunity to theorize and empirically test expectations on what drives EU support. In contrast to previous crises, the pandemic has hit all European countries, albeit to a different extent and at different time points. While all countries took extraordinary measures, there is important variation in the policy instruments and the responses by political actors across EU countries and over time. The pandemic, therefore, constitutes an opportunity that allows for applying innovative causal inference designs which promise important insights for better understanding what drives EU support.


Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced that the EU must prepare for an “era of pandemics”. Studying how the corona crisis has affected EU support is important as we generate important insights into how the EU can be made more resilient in future crises. Questions of how to design policy instruments to address a crisis, how to coordinate policy responses among member states and how to communicate to the public are questions that are of utmost relevance to any future crisis. Our project therefore allows us to provide policy-makers with evidence-based recommendations on how to maintain and even increase popular support for the EU in times of crises and to ultimately ensure the future viability of the EU.