Eurosceptic political parties in Europe have been on the rise over the last few years. What are the reasons for this? What are the main arguments made by Eurosceptics against the EU?

Taking Benefits for Granted

The last time I was to Belgium, we didn't actually stop in Belgium. We drove right through from the Netherlands to France. I'm old enough to remember having to stop at borders for long waiting lines.

Earlier this year a young colleague of mine decided to tour south-eastern Europe on his vacation. I went into a train to Vienna and by bus and train from there. No plan, just a backpack and a credit card. As he told it, he was surprised that in the train to Serbia people came and wanted to see his papers. He was glad that his national ID card was enough, because he had not thought to bring a passport. We had a good laugh at the office when he told the story.

A Perception of EU Overreach

They thought they were getting into a free trade area, now the EU is regulating the shape of cucumbers, the power of lightbulbs, and refugee rights. What has that to do with free trade?

Well, people in some of the older EU member states have always seen the EU as a political project, with an ever tighter integration. Others just wanted free movement and structural and cohesion funds, with no strings attached. Nobody told them it doesn't work that way.

(Or rather, it could work that way if there was consensus. But if the net payers have different ideas from the net recipients, things get ugly.)

A Perception of Demands for Bailouts

During the banking crisis, some EU/Eurozone members had to be funded by others. Among the stable and strong economies, there is a perception that some south-eastern members are profligate wastrels who want others to subsidize their laziness. This is not entirely accurate, of course.

• Industries in countries like Germany, France or the Netherlands benefit from the Euro which would be grossly undervalued if it was just for those countries. Look what happened to the Swiss Franc. The Euro is kept lower by the bad credit rating of some members.


• Biases enter this perception. Just compare the Latvian financial crisis with the Greek one. Greece got much more blame.

Fear of Change in a Globalizing World

Things are changing. Fast. Think back 10 years and the iPhone was brand new. Now we have selfies, emoticons, and uber. Amazon is replacing shops. Imagine what will happen when autonomous cars replace trucks and delivery vans. Quite a lot of people feel threatened by the pace of change.

Populists see the distant EU as a perfect scapegoat for all the problems. If something goes right, they take the credit. If something goes wrong, they had no choice, it was the EU. Year, sure.