Political Economy of EU Support within East and Central European States

This paper proposes an analysis of EU support within East and Central European states in terms of political economy. Within this framework, it has been shown that individual EU support reacts to macroeconomic variables ? mainly unemployment, growth, and inflation ? exactly as does support for national governments. However, to show that the EU is deemed by citizens to be a ruling body, we also need to demonstrate that citizens’ perceptions of the EU change with their country’s accession to the European political system. Based on Eurobarometer surveys conducted three years before and after the 2004 wave of accessions, we analyze economic support for the EU in the eight East and Central European countries that joined European institutions on this occasion. Although our hypothesis is not confirmed in the case of inflation and growth, we find that unemployment did not affect EU support before accession and that it considerably altered this support after 2004, eventually confirming the ruling position of the EU.