Continuity or change? Domestic ratifications of the European Financial Stability Facility and the Own Resources Decision

This article compares domestic ratifications of two major EU crisis-response measures: the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), adopted during the euro-area sovereign debt crisis, and the Own Resources Decision (ORD), adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. It asks whether parliamentary party support varies across asymmetric and symmetric crises, as commonly assumed in the literature. The analysis reveals a strong pattern of continuity: levels of party support and opposition, as well as their underlying justifications, are remarkably similar across both cases. Based on a novel dataset covering all EU member states concerned and combining statistical analysis with qualitative and quantitative content analysis, the article shows that party preferences exhibit pronounced continuity and adapt only slowly, even in the face of major shocks. These findings challenge expectations of crisis-induced change in EU politics and instead highlight the persistence of established domestic conflict structures in shaping support for sharing fiscal liabilities.