ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the preferences of national political elites regarding which level of government should be mainly responsible for decision on a number of key policy areas. The main goal of the chapter is to test whether the Eurozone crisis has altered these preferences and, if so, to explain which factors account most for these changes. We find that, during the crisis, European Union (EU) intervention in policy-making became more accepted in most short-term policy fields. Furthermore, the difference in perceptions between trans-border (more supranational) and welfare-sensitive (more national) policies persisted, but it became more diluted. Support for long-term unification of policy slightly decreased between 2007 and 2014, but it remained prevalent in all policy domains. Within this general picture, regional variations have emerged, the Central and Eastern European member states showed lower levels of support for EU-involvement in policy.
