The Exit Impact on the Remaining Members: A comparative case study on how the Brexit referendum did affect the sense of a European identity in four of the EU member states

Sammanfattning

This thesis seeks to investigate how the EU member states react to the occurrence of an internal crisis within the EU. More specifically, how a European identity gets either strengthened or weakened by experiencing challenges. When addressing a European identity, this thesis works with the term of “belonging”, an attachment to something greater when defining the concept of European identity. Through the lens of ontological security, this study aims to answer the research question: Did the Brexit referendum affect the sense of a European identity in the EU member states, and if so, how did this play out in the different member states? By conducting a comparative analysis together with a discourse analysis over the member states of France, Poland, Portugal and Sweden, the rhetorical changes towards the EU are investigated. The findings show that a sense of a European identity has in fact increased in all four cases, even if this presents itself in various ways in the member states. However, it is difficult to argue that the Brexit referendum was the solely variable behind this outcome, but one could claim it to be a catalyst for the member states to move closer to a belonging within the EU.