Euroscepticism in Cross-border Regions

The European Territorial Cooperation Policy finds its roots in a desire shared by political leaders after the Second World War to overcome the wounds of history and to help to bring societies closer together. To accomplish this aim, the strategy has been to progressively dismantle the obstacles to interaction that borders engender, based on the idea that cross-border flows are drivers of stability, prosperity, and unity. Exchanges have boomed, driven by the numerous opportunities offered in the context of “de-bordering”. However, while cross-border cooperation initiatives are numerous, the counter phenomenon of Euroscepticism took shape and progressively gained momentum, especially after the results of the referenda on the ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty that took place in France and in the Netherlands in 2005. Euroscepticism is a contested notion, generally defined more as a discourse than an ideology. It encompasses a wide range of potential attitudes, from principled opposition to the European Union (EU) and European integration, to a dissatisfaction with core EU policies.

Hans-Jörg Trenz and Pieter De Wilde define Euroscepticism as, “an expression of reactive identities towards European integration.” The reluctance towards the European project has been observable since the summit of the Hague in 1948 and the opposition between unionists, in favour of intergovernmental cooperation, and federalists, in favour of the establishment of a European Federation at a supranational scale. However, expressions of Euroscepticism, such as those which appeared in the 1980s in the UK, expanded rapidly, particularly following criticisms of the...