This article shall be a contribution towards the ongoing academic debate about the theorisation of contention over European integration. The historical perspective put forward prompts the questioning of explanations grounded on the “end of the permissive consensus” and the subsequent rise of Euroscepticism in the aftermath of the Maastricht Treaty. The European integration process shall actually be seen as intrinsically contentious, hence the need for an approach allowing to explain forms of contention since its origins. Therefore, an analysis of resistances to European integration is advocated. Compared to the notion of Euroscepticism, it can better grasp the diversity of actors, motivations, subjective representations of Europe and their variation over time in a less normative manner.