Euroscepticism - Terminology

Terminology

There can be considered to be two different types of Eurosceptic thought, which differ in the extent to which adherents reject European integration and in their reasons for doing so. Aleks Szczerbiak and Paul Taggart described these as 'hard' and 'soft' euroscepticism.

Hard euroscepticism is the opposition to membership of, or the existence of, the European Union as a matter of principle. The Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in the European Parliament, typified by such parties as the United Kingdom Independence Party, is hard eurosceptic. In western European EU member countries, hard euroscepticism is currently a hallmark of many anti-establishment parties. Though in the UK Independence Party case, it is a centre-right wing populist party, which is pro establishment supporting the monarchy.

Soft euroscepticism is support for the existence of, and membership of, a form of European Union, but with opposition to specific EU policies, and opposition to a federal Europe. The European Conservatives and Reformists group, typified by centre-right parties such as the British Conservative Party, along with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left which is an alliance of the left-wing parties in the European Parliament, is soft eurosceptic.

Alternative names for 'hard' and 'soft' euroscepticism are respectively 'withdrawalist' and 'reformist' euroscepticism. Some 'hard' eurosceptics such as UKIP prefer to call themselves euro-realists rather than 'sceptics', and regard their position as pragmatic rather than "in principle". Also many on the left such as Tony Benn tend not to use the phrase to refer to themselves even though they share many of their criticisms of the European Union and they may use phrases such as euro-critical or just call themselves democrats or socialists and their scepticism as part of their wider belief in democracy or socialism.

The Czech President Václav Klaus rejected the term "euroscepticism", with its purported negative undertones, saying (at a meeting in April 2012) that the expressions for a eurosceptic and his opponent should be "a Euro-realist" and someone who is "Euro-naïve" (respectively).