European integration fails to drive state restructuring, nationalist parties take lead
The article investigates how European integration has affected state restructuring in Belgium, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It looks at how political parties in different regions of these countries have used the EU in their strategies for state reform. The study found that parties only slightly used the EU in their strategies, and this was not strongly linked to how integrated the EU was. The party's position in the political system, their views on the constitution, and their attitudes towards EU integration were the main factors influencing their use of the EU dimension. Parties that wanted independence and supported EU integration were most likely to use the EU in their strategies.