Sovereignty-based euroscepticism

Abstract

As globalisation trends have broadened, the problem of sovereignty has arisen to what extent can a state be free to shape its own policies when, as a member of international organisations, it has surrendered part of its sovereignty in favor of certain benefits. The aim of my presentation is to introduce the Eurosceptic position and to try to outline the extent to which objections to the Union can be considered legitimate in terms of the sovereignty issue. To examine this, I will mainly use examples from Hungary, while I will mainly try to support the pro-EU position with international literature. My basic hypothesis is that the rise in anti-EU sentiment today is mainly since those different social groups and institutions, such as the state, civil society and individuals, interpret EU policy through different dimensions of the concept of sovereignty, which significantly distorts the information communicated by EU institutions.