East-bound Enlargement of the EU and Identities in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper examines how Central and Eastern European people identify themselves and what factors tend to influence their identities, based on data from the CCEB (Candidate Country Eurobarometer) series. The paper deals with several identity-related indicators, such as European Identity (EI), National Identity (NI), European Pride (EP), National Pride (NP) and EU Image (EI) . EI, a core indicator, shows much fluctuation from survey to survey and from country to country. Secondly, average EI scores show little difference between the ten Central and Eastern European countries (the CEE10) and the 15 EU countries (the EU 15) . This may imply that the people of the CEE10 identify themselves just as the people of EU10 do. Thirdly, concerning mutual relations between identity-related indicators, a strong positive correlation is observed between EP and NP. It is also observed between EU Image and Support for EU Membership, and between Support for EU Membership and Voting Behaviour in a Referendum. Finally, several economic fundamentals are examined as possible factors influencing EI. It turns out that the rate of inflation and the ratio of government fiscal deficit to GDP may influence EI to some extent.