Revisiting the politicization of the EU. A three-dimensional approach

The aim of this chapter is to present a framework for creating an Index of Politicization of the EU (IPEU) that can subsequently be used for developing a survey aimed at understanding the ways in which the issue of Europe is affecting voting today. In this way, we try to build a bridge between what is currently known about EU-politicization and its impact on citizens’ political attitudes and voting behaviour. The literature has so far largely neglected citizens’ attitudes. Consequently, a number of important developments remain unaccounted for, such as how the new conflicts between the “winners” and “losers” translate into electoral behaviour and thereby tap into the process of European integration. We aim to fill this gap by first exploring the frames by which the EU has been politicized in different countries and then by grasping how these different frames are linked to different political attitudes and electoral behaviour.