The ECR party’s critique of the federalist model of the EU: An alternative model of European integration in the shadow of the sovereign Nation-State

• Autor(a) principal: Marques, Ricardo Taborda Trigo
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/29834
• topic: ECR; Federalism; EU; Nation-State; Euroscepticism; Sovereignty; Federalismo; UE; Estado Nação; Euroceticismo; Soberania

The voracious emergence of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party has been triggering constant curiosity and astonishment both on the part of the academia and the traditional European parties. Inseparable from themes in vogue and considered definitive as globalisation and the European federalist project, for being a staunch critic of both, the ECR group is nowadays considered a party that is both unavoidable in the camp of Euroscepticism and feared by traditional parties. In the most dominant European countries, their main members are either in government or are the main opposition party. This fact should, effectively, lead us to reflect deeply on what model of European integration we can and should have, since the growing tension between the domestic and European spaces generates quarrels, which gradually wear out and weaken the coherence and credibility of the European Union (EU). That is, this party not only questions the present and dominant federalist model of the EU, based on concrete facts occurred in the recent past, but also its vision can constitute a harbinger of what could become the future of the European integration. As such, its intriguing alternative model of European integration becomes a topic of pertinent analysis, seeking to reconcile the sovereignty of the European Nation-State with the project of European integration. This way, the inevitability and relevance of the confrontation between what this party proposes and the federalist project of the EU gather all the necessary conditions to give place to a current and impactful study.