ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we first explain how the different crises of the EU relate to different domains of solidarity. We distinguish between four different domains of European solidarity. Fiscal solidarity is defined as citizens’ willingness to support indebted European countries financially. Territorial solidarity is the willingness to reduce inequality between poor and rich EU countries. Welfare solidarity is citizens’ agreement to support those in need regardless of where they live in the EU. Finally, the refugee crisis has raised the question of whether the EU should grant refugees coming from outside of the EU asylum status (external solidarity) and how to distribute the asylum seekers between the member states (internal solidarity). Second, we define a set of theoretically derived criteria to measure the strength of European solidarity. We argue that European solidarity exists if four criteria are met: (1) the majority of all Europeans support the idea of European solidarity; (2) the EU constitutes a specific space of solidarity distinguishable from both global and national solidarity; (3) EU citizens are prepared to sacrifice resources for European solidarity; and (4) social and political cleavages between proponents and opponents of European solidarity are not pronounced.
