Requiem for European Solidarity. An Analysis of the European Discourse on the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework
Requiem for European Solidarity. An Analysis of the European Discourse on the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, we analyze official speeches delivered by three of EU’s high rank officials, namely the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Parliament and the President of the European Council, and by the two political leaders of the Union, the French President and the German Chancellor. All the examined speeches focused on the 2014-2020 budget and were delivered before the European Council held on February 7-8, 2013, excepting Angela Merkel’s speech, which was delivered at the end of February, in the German Parliament. We used textual analysis to investigate the themes and the meaning categories that appear in the text and how these themes and categories are discursively constructed in order to convey a particular view on the budget and on EU’s future prospects as a viable and trustful project. In our analysis, we started from the premise that there is a gap between discourse and action within the EU, and that this credibility gap can easily add to the already acknowledged economic, financial and political causes of the EU’s decline. Unfortunately, a credibility gap might produce more damage more rapidly as it usually generates popular frustration and exhaustion.

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