The impact of the Maastricht Treaty on euroscepticism in Italy (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1,0, , language: English, abstract: Euroscepticism is a phenomenon that has evolved in many EU-member states in the last decade and has quite clearly manifested itself in the Brexit debate. Italy, despite being a founding member and historically pro-European, also started to establish Eurosceptic approaches and tends to blame the EU, especially the Euro, for its economic problems. This paper seeks to analyze the origin of Euroscepticism in Italy by looking at the reform programs that were imposed after the Maastricht convergence criteria required prospective members to cut their deficit and debt ratio.

The resulting cuts in social expenditure created a public opposition towards the EU. Yet, even though Euroscepticism evolved, the Maastricht treaty can be seen both as an opportunity and a challenge. The emergence of Euroscepticism, however, is a general threat to the functioning and credibility of the EU. There are numerous reasons for countries to develop Euroscepticism. As for the Italian case, some scholars explain Euroscepticism by the accumulation of external historical factors, like the Maastricht Treaty of 1992.