How supranational institutions benefit from crises: Member states’ solidarity and the EU's image during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In this article, we demonstrate how solidarity between member states can have a positive effect on the image of the EU, even if the latter's actions in handling a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic are deemed unsatisfactory. Employing data from a special Eurobarometer survey enriched with data from the Oxford's COVID-19 government response tracker, we show that European citizens who are more satisfied with interstate solidarity have to a greater extent a positive image of the EU compared to citizens who are less satisfied. We also show that this effect is further pronounced in the case of EU citizens who are less satisfied with institutional solidarity, which is the solidarity going from EU institutions to the member states.

What guides citizen support for redistributive EU measures as a response to COVID-19: Justice attitudes, self-interest or support for European integration?

“…And for EU support, our results indicate that positive attitudes towards more integration also spill over to support for EU-level redistribution. This result nicely complements Papageorgiou and Immonen (2023) , who find that individual satisfaction with the solidaristic actions of member states towards each other lead to a more positive assessment of the EU overall. Taken together, the results of Papageorgiou and Immonen (2023) coupled with ours point to a positive feedback loop, in which citizens, who support the EU want to see widespread cooperation among member states including social and financial matters.…”

“…This result nicely complements Papageorgiou and Immonen (2023) , who find that individual satisfaction with the solidaristic actions of member states towards each other lead to a more positive assessment of the EU overall. Taken together, the results of Papageorgiou and Immonen (2023) coupled with ours point to a positive feedback loop, in which citizens, who support the EU want to see widespread cooperation among member states including social and financial matters. Once they perceive such cooperation, they might become even more positive about the EU.…”