Politicisation refers to the increasing contentiousness in decision-making in the process of regional integration (Hooghe and Marks, 2012). This project aims to explain the way in which contestation over regional integration connects to domestic conflict and the consequences for electoral behaviour at the national level. Previous research has shown a decrease of economic voting in Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal) to the extent the EU was held responsible for the economy (Lobo and Lewis-Beck, 2012). Since the introduction of EMU in 2001, the fundamental changes occurred in national decision-making have definitely altered the room for manoeuvre of governments with regard to key policies. With the outbreak of the Eurozone crisis in 2009-2010, the limited ability of certain governments has become painfully clear. MAPLE's hypothesis is that this structural change may induce alterations in the way citizens perceive politics. In particular, we focus on the national character of the vote function, based on the perceived accountability for economic policies. This is an important question that impacts our understanding of how European democracies function today in a multilevel setting.