Support for European Membership in the new Candidate Countries

Abstract

Is European Membership supported in candidate countries? Up until now a lot has been written on support for European integration and explanations for it within European Union Member States. Considering three candidate countries – Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey – and focusing on the economic calculus of costs and benefits and national-European identity theories, this paper analyses public opinion support for European Membership. The main results, obtained using the Candidate Countries Eurobarometer 2003.4 dataset, and applying a logistic regression model, shown that the economic model better explains the support for European integration than does the identity model. National identity does not affect the support at all; it is not significant in any of the models elaborated.