ATTITYDER TILL EUROPEISK INTEGRATION UTANFÖR EUROZONEN - En jämförande studie över medborgares attityder till fördjupad europeisk integration i Eurozonen och i övriga EU.

Abstract

Attitudes towards European integration can be explained by both contextual and individual factors. Earlier research has focused largely on more general attitudes towards the EU, or on EU as a homogenous group of countries. The purpose of this essay is to focus on attitudes towards the deepening aspect of European integration, as well as examine the potential differences in how individuals shape attitudes in and outside the Eurozone. There is a lot of evidence that the Eurozone and the Euro crisis affected attitudes towards European integration. Therefor there is reasons to believe that factors on an individual level that explains attitudes towards deepening integration differs in or outside the Eurozone. By focusing on the deepening aspect of integration, as well as differences based on the eurozone, this essay aims to broaden the understanding regarding the complexity of both EU as a heterogenous group when examining attitudes, and of general attitudes towards EU. The result of this study’s regression analysis shows that factors which explain general attitudes towards the EU, offer limited explanations for attitudes towards deepening European integration. The results also shows that the individual factors vary greatly between the eurozone and the rest of the EU. The results show the problems with treating the EU as a homogenous group. It also shows a difference between general attitudes towards the EU, and attitudes towards deepening European integration.