ABSTRACT
The concluding chapter summarises the results of the empirical analyses. Overall, Europe’s citizens exhibit a notably high level of solidarity with citizens of other EU countries and EU states. We discuss how our results relate to the development of the European Union, which is currently being influenced by the growing relevance of Euroscepticism. Our results do not support the presumption formulated by right-wing communitarians/nationalists and also by some left-leaning pundits, according to which the majority of citizens would veto the institutionalisation of European solidarity. In fact, our evidence provides encouragement for European elites to drive the European project forward. We further explore the meaning of our findings by referring to the debate on the reconfiguration of the political space through the emergence of a new cleavage structure. Finally, we discuss three recommendations for EU policy makers to consider to strengthen European solidarity.
