Italy

Abstract

There is a paradox in Italy’s position towards the EC. While she has long been one of the most pro-European — if not the most pro-European — member states, as measured by polls on attitudes to European integration and by views of political élites, the concerns behind this pro-Europeanism are at least on the part of the latter first and foremost domestic ones. Can this simply be explained by a difference between conceptual attitudes towards integration on the one level which are positive and actual political behaviour on another which may be called instrumental? This scenario was well illustrated by the 1984 EP election campaign which was highly ‘internalised’ in terms of the issues and the real motives of the politicians involved. But, in fact, the ‘internalisation’ of European policy has a long tradition in postwar Italy.