Research goals

Substantive objectives.
The major aims are: (1) to provide an important set of baseline measures to assessing the extent to which ‘European’ citizenship has developed since the beginning of the 21st century.
(2) To raise standards that will be a reference for new and coming research. The project as it is envisioned will significantly contribute to both, the empirical testing of existing theories of integration and citizenship in its threefold dimensions, identity, representation and governance, and the development and improvement of those theories.

Methodological objectives.
To contribute to raise the standards of current research to a highly competitive level. Due to the high quality of the scholars involved and the scope of the project that is here proposed, it will represent a significant advancement in terms of data collection and the methods used for analyzing it.

Data collection objectives.
Through the combined use of existing and new data, the changes related to each enlargement will be investigated. In those processes, key-actors and outcomes will then be identified. Because the time dimension will be central to the project, comparisons will be systematically undertaken between past, present and likely future, which will give to the findings a significant forecasting capacity.