Solidarity and reciprocity in the European Union: What citizens think. A policy paper based on focus group research in nine countries

Between 2021 and 2024, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research commissioned a series of research projects devoted to cohesion in Europe. One of the projects, HEUREC, was conducted by researchers at the Institute of Political Science at Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. The project investigated which expectations of solidarity and reciprocity citizens in the European Union have toward other European countries and the institutions of the European Union. In this brief report, we sketch the key results from the research project and, based on this, formulate some policy advice for shaping the social policy dimension and future development of EU cohesion.