Conflicts of sovereignty over EU trade policy: a new constitutional settlement?

Crespy, Amandine; Rone, Julia

doi:10.1057/s41295-022-00272-x

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…What we can be sure about though is the increasing prominence of frames related to popular sovereignty. This has been already established in other European contexts such as France, Germany and Belgium, as well as the EU in general (Borriello and Brack, 2019;Crespy and Rone, 2022;Gerbaudo and Screti, 2017). The complex politicisation of sovereignty by movements and parties alike is here to stay.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Instrumentalising sovereignty claims in British pro- and anti-Brexit mobilisations

Rone

2022

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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Despite the growing literature on Brexit, specifically, and conflicts of sovereignty, more generally, there has been insufficient research on how the concept of sovereignty has been used in citizen campaigns and street protests across the United Kingdom – a form of ‘counter-democracy’ through which people attempted to oversee the post-referendum political process. Combining qualitative content analysis of campaign websites with a discourse-network analysis of media articles on Brexit protests, this article shows that claims to sovereignty were mobilised not only in conflicts between the United Kingdom and the European Union, but also in conflicts between different institutions within Britain itself. Both ‘Leavers’ and ‘Remainers’ appealed to popular and parliamentary sovereignty at different points in time, pragmatically adapting their framing according to changing circumstances but also as a result of a dynamic series of interactions with each other, including denying, keying and embracing their opponents’ frames. Crucially, conflicts around different institutionalisations of popular sovereignty did not demand system change, a rhetoric familiar from other protests of the 2010s such as Occupy Wall Street with its emphasis on ‘We are the 99%’. To the contrary, pro- and anti-Brexit mobilisations remained firmly focused on Brexit policy itself. They problematised the split between ‘Remainers’ and ‘Leavers’ within the United Kingdom, between 48% and 52%, and thus, on a deeper level, the tension between the political principle of popular sovereignty and the sociological reality of a split country. Finally, the more Leavers opposed Remainers, the more movements and parties on each of these two sides aligned. Politicians featured prominently in campaigns and as speakers at protest events, contributing to close cooperation between protesters and parties, and precluding anti-systemic discourses around popular sovereignty that would target parties and institutions altogether.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Instrumentalising sovereignty claims in British pro- and anti-Brexit mobilisations

Rone

2022

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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“…Scholars, too, have used the concept, stressing its multifaceted nature (Coman and Leconte, 2019). Brack et al (2019) and Borriello and Brack (2019) showed how the populist discourse of both right‐wing and left‐wing parties alternate between popular, national, supranational and parliamentary sovereignty; Baldini et al (2020) discussed the adjectives (economic, cultural, nationalistic, populist and civic) associated with sovereignism; Schmitz and Seidl (2022), Crespy and Rone (2022) and Pollack (2021) showed how the concept of sovereignty was also used by EU institutional and policy actors. Here, our aim is rather to identify the features of RWS discourse regarding the EU (what RWS actors do and do not like about the EU, which policies they would and would not repatriate from the EU).…”

Section: What Is Sovereignism? a Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Right‐Wing Sovereignism in the European Union: Definition, Features and Implications

Fabbrini

Zgaga

2023

J of Common Market Studies

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This article investigates how traditionally anti‐European Union (EU) right‐wing parties and leaders in four EU member states reinterpreted their relation with the EU in the post‐Brexit period (2016–2022). Either for the political opportunity structure's constraints or for the costs triggered by Brexit, right‐wing European nationalists had to redefine their role in remaining in the EU. We conceptualize as ‘sovereignism’ their attempt to endogenize nationalism in the EU. Relying on discourse analysis, this article shows that right‐wing sovereignism criticized the supranational character and the centralized policy system that developed within the EU. However, right‐wing sovereignism differed in the rationale of its criticism, based more on an economic discourse in Western Europe and more on a cultural discourse in Eastern Europe, as well as on the policies to repatriate. The sovereignist approach of nationalist right‐wing parties and leaders would lead to the nationally differentiated disintegration of the EU.

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“…This has led scholars to conclude that whilst 'Emmanuel Macron has made much of European sovereignty', what he really means is 'European strategic autonomy in areas such as defence and digital technology' (Bickerton et al 2022). Even in an area like trade policy, where it was used on multiple occasions, the 'European sovereignty' discourse is uninvolved with sovereignty conflicts (Crespy and Rone 2022). In sum, the discursive practice of 'European sovereignty' does not seem to have much relevance for the broader 'sovereignty games' in the EU (Adler-Nissen and Gammeltoft-Hansen 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘A Sovereign Europe’? Strategic Use of Discourse at the Service of French Economic Interests in EU Politics (2017–2022)

Bora

2023

J of Common Market Studies

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The ‘practice turn’ in European Union (EU) studies has shown that everyday actions, notably discursive practices, are consequential for producing European integration. Yet, an important development has been overlooked by scholars: the emergence of a ‘European sovereignty’ discourse in EU politics. Since President Emmanuel Macron's Sorbonne speech in September 2017, the EU policy of the French government has been structured around the affirmed objective of building ‘European sovereignty’. It supposes that the EU should become more geopolitical and not shy away from defending its own interests in an increasingly disorderly and hostile world. This article enquires into the objectives that President Macron and the French government have sought to realise by introducing this discourse into EU politics. We argue that ‘European sovereignty’ is a discursive practice that instrumentalises security threats to the EU in order to legitimise France's economic policy objectives, most notably the reform of EU competition policy. Our findings derive not only from publicly available documents and speeches but also 72 semi‐directed interviews.

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Conflicts of sovereignty over EU trade policy: a new constitutional settlement?

Cited by 13 publications

References 36 publications

Instrumentalising sovereignty claims in British pro- and anti-Brexit mobilisations

Instrumentalising sovereignty claims in British pro- and anti-Brexit mobilisations

Right‐Wing Sovereignism in the European Union: Definition, Features and Implications

‘A Sovereign Europe’? Strategic Use of Discourse at the Service of French Economic Interests in EU Politics (2017–2022)

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