Politicization and rebordering in EU enlargement: membership discourses in European parliaments

Abstract

Enlargement is the most significant debordering policy of the European Union. In an analysis of debates in the European Parliament and a sample of member state national parliaments, this article examines whether EU enlargement discourse has been characterized by a politicized rebordering process since the mid-2000s. We find that enlargement discourse has become more ‘rebordered’ in the course of the 2010s. Moreover, enlargement has lost salience and become more contested. In a regression analysis of enlargement positions and frames, we further show that the enlargement discourse is systematically politicized along cultural partisan lines. Members of culturally conservative and nationalist parties are more opposed to enlargement and use more restrictive frames. Finally, we observe that cultural boundary gaps based on the dominant religion of potential member states reinforce the cultural divide in the discourse. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group