Stoycheva 1
One Europe? Economic and Political Determinants of Attitudes to European
Union Integration in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe
Abstract
This paper examines the determinants of public attitudes towards EU membership
in the ten candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It integrates theories of
public opinion on EU integration for Western and Eastern Europe, and tests the derived
hypotheses with data from the 2002 Candidate Countries Eurobarometer, using
multinomial logit. The results confirm that education, income, and cognitive mobilization
are positively related to support for EU membership, but occupation is not significant,
except for the negative attitude of farmers. Also, positive economic perceptions and
expectations increase support for EU membership, as well as reported satisfaction with
democracy in the country, trust in government, and the belief that the country historically
belongs to Europe. An interaction model comparing the relative impact of the
determinants for more successful versus less successful transition countries indicates that
economic determinants have a bigger impact for the successful countries, while
satisfaction with democracy is more important for the less successful countries.