Does EU authority affect EU issue voting in national elections? Current evidence suggests that politicization over the issue of European integration is dependent on the scope of EU competences. Yet, politicization increases issue salience at the individual level, which, in turn, fosters issue voting. Hence, EU issue voting should be more prevalent among individuals who deem the EU responsible for policy decisions. To test this hypothesis, I take advantage of the 2009 EES dataset. Findings show that individuals who attribute policy responsibility to the EU are not more likely to choose parties on their EU positioning than those who do not. Besides, complementary analyses indicate that EU congruence affects party choice in national contexts, but does not show an increase of EU issue voting from 2004 to 2009. Overall, there is limited evidence that the authority of the EU affects EU issue voting.

Reference :Le Gall, Cal (2019): EU authority, politicization and EU issue voting, Politique Européenne, Vol. 64, No 2, pp. 32-55, DOI: 10.3917/poeu.064.0032