Returning to Europe and Turning Away From ”Europe”? Post-Accession Attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe

This project addresses the recent backlash against European values in a post-communist setting, i.e. the manifold instances of populist attacks on or challenges to not only European integration but also what the European Union represents: tolerance, liberal democracy, respect for human rights and the protection of minority rights. Following the 2004 and 2007 eastern enlargements of the EU – sometimes described as a return to Europe – we have throughout the post-communist region witnessed signs of democratic backsliding, euroscepticism, the rise of radical right populism, the spread of corruption, and in some places an authoritarian backlash, and the rise of xenophobia and chauvinism. In order to analyse post-accession popular support for democracy and liberal values, the proposed project seeks funding for a research project on public opinion in Central and Eastern Europe. More specifically, the idea is to follow up on a series of opinion surveys conducted in the region in the 1990s up until the first EU enlargement; and confined to the Baltic states, in 2014. The idea is to launch a new wave of nation-wide public opinion surveys in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.

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Final report - Joakim Ekman - Returning to Europe and Turning Away From "Europe"? Post-Accession Attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe