Perspectives of national elites on European citizenship. A South European view

Over the last two decades, the process of European integration has become interwoven with the theme of citizenship and the debate on the democratic quality of the EU and of its institutions has become more salient. What are the views about Europe which emerge when we interrogate the national elites of the four large South European countries, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and what is their vision of a supra-national citizenship in its different facets? Are these views sufficiently homogeneous and do they distinguish themselves from those of the rest of the European Union to the point of enabling us to talk about a "distinctive region of Europe"? Which interpretation(s) of European citizenship emerges from a systematic exploration of these opinions?

Using a set of survey and textual data collected in the framework of the IntUne project, the authors attempt to provide some original answers to these questions.

This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Contents:

1. European Citizenship and the National Elites of Southern Europe Nicolò Conti, Maurizio Cotta and Pedro Tavares de Almeida
2. Italy: Still a Pro-European, but not a Fully Europeanised Elite? Christophe Roux and Luca Verzichelli
3. The Perception of the European Union by Political and Economic Elites in Spain Miguel Jerez Mir, José Real Dato and Rafael Vázquez García
4. Attitudes of the Portuguese Elites towards the European Union Diogo Moreira, João Pedro Ruivo, António Costa Pinto and Pedro Tavares de Almeida
5. Attitudes of Greek Parliamentarians Towards European and National Identity, Representation, and Scope of Governance Roula Nezi, Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos and Panayiota Toka
6. European Citizenship in Party Euromanifestos: Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective (1994–2004) Nicolò Conti 7. Southern Europe: A Distinctive and More Pro-European Region in the EU? Nicolò Conti, Maurizio Cotta and Pedro Tavares de Almeida