National Economic Performance and Public Support for the EU

This paper analyses the relationship between national economic conditions and public support for the EU. Firstly, it proposes a simple conceptual framework, drawing on theories of utilitarian support and on the recent political economic literature on integration processes. Subsequently, it tests this framework against panel data on EU member countries. The findings show that economic benefits and costs shape citizens’ attitudes towards EU membership, but with differences over time and space. Our analysis challenges some previous findings of the literature on aggregate public support for the EU and may also shed some light on the problems encountered during ratification of the Constitutional Treaty.