Is There an East–West Divide over European Solidarity? Comparing European Citizens’ Attitudes Towards Cross-Border Solidarity 2016

Florian K Kley,Holger Lengfeld

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-54674-8_4

Abstract

Abstract The Euro and sovereign debt crises since 2008, as well as the following Great Recession, have challenged the strength of European solidarity between EU citizens and member states. This chapter analyses the strength of European solidarity within East Central Europe and other European countries in two dimensions: citizens’ willingness to support indebted European countries financially (European fiscal solidarity) and their willingness to reduce welfare differences among EU member states (European territorial solidarity). The analyses are based on a comparative survey conducted in 13 European countries in 2016. Results show that citizens displayed a notably high level of European solidarity in both dimensions. While ECE countries showed slightly lower approval rates for European fiscal solidarity, their demand for European territorial solidarity is average. However, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland do not form a unique cluster standing out on these topics, making further policies of European integration possible.

Highlights

IntroductionThe sovereign debt crisis weakened the Euro as a whole and put the European Monetary Union (EMU) under pressure
We investigate attitudes towards different domains of transnational solidarity of citizens from East Central European (ECE) and other European countries: firstly, the European banking and financial crisis, and secondly, the Great Recession
To save banks teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, some European Union (EU) member states took out large government loans, which resulted in adverse deficits in their national budgets

Summary

Introduction

The sovereign debt crisis weakened the Euro as a whole and put the European Monetary Union (EMU) under pressure These institutional deficits were tackled by a series of financial support measures provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and not least of all, the EU member states. Public debate and discourses played an important role anyway, when national politicians in Slovakia raised their voice against extensive financial measures for other, wealthier EU member states (Kulish and Castle 2011) Taking into account their comparably low levels of economic wealth, one may assume citizens from the ECE countries could be rather sceptical towards European fiscal solidarity than other member states, especially the crisis-stricken Southern ones. Both solidarity domains were discussed extensively in recent years, making the question of citizens’ views on these issues highly relevant

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