Measuring the Public Perception of the European Integration Process: Evidence from the United Kingdom and Germany

Abstract

This paper investigates a new method of measuring public perception of European integration policies. The methodology is based on a monthly frequency of news generating a negative attitude toward the EU integration process in newspapers from 2010:1 to 2018:12. The studies concerning similar topic are mostly based on survey data, which does not allow measuring dissatisfaction with individual political acts. The newly constructed indexes show that the identified spikes correspond to all major European integration events and can capture public disagreement attitude with the implementation of individual policies on a European or national level. The results are compared with the interest of individuals with the use of Google trend data analysis. Indexes may be useful to understand the non-economic cost in policy decision making, the same as in the question of the ambivalence of Europe.