At the Source of European Solidarity: Assessing the Effects of Cross-border Practices and Political Attitudes

In this article we discuss the concept of European solidarity by distinguishing between transnational and international solidarity. The former refers to support for institutional arrangements aimed at sharing economic risks at the individual level, while the latter entails public agreement to share economic risks at the Member State level. We explore the joint role of cross-border interactions and political attitudes in fostering solidarity ties among Europeans through multilevel modelling based on the 2012 Eurobarometer 77 survey. The article shows that transnational experiences do not have the same effect on different forms of European solidarity, limiting transnational and enhancing international solidarity. Egalitarian individuals are more prone to EU-wide solidarity, with cross-border practices affecting their level of solidarity, while not altering those of the rest of the population. In particular, we find that cross-border practices make egalitarians more inclined to international and less to transnational solidarity