Candidates for Euroscepticism?
With the European Union on the cusp of accepting up to 10 new members, there are signs that support for EU accession is on the wane in Central and Eastern Europe.
Transitions Online (TOL) and EUMAP, a website devoted to human rights and EU accession, published of a new series of articles looking at the phenomenon of Euroscepticism in Central and Eastern Europe.
Once a marginal factor among the peoples and politicians of post-communist Europe, Euroscepticism has grown in importance around the region in recent years. While most people in the region still support EU membership for their countries, the number of those opposed to it has grown since the mid-1990s.
With the EU preparing to accept up to eight new members from Central and Eastern Europe by 2004, the waning support for accession among Easterners has started to attract attention in both the East and the West.
This package of articles by leading analysts of the EU enlargement process looks at the phenomenon and asks whether
it reflects a rising tide of Euroscepticism, or if it is rather a result of indifference or ignorance. Another article observes that visionary dreams about the EU dimmed in the face of political realities, and Eurosceptic attitudes started to spread in Eastern Europe.Case studies of two increasingly "Eurosceptic" countries--Estonia and Poland--indicate that issues of national identity and nationalism may pose a threat to the EU enlargement project. One article argues that
EU requirements to respect minorities are perceived as a threatin Estonia. Another one observes that Polish nationalist politicians are geared up to capitalize on general concerns about the economic consequences of accession.To read all the articles in the package, please visit
Transitions Online.