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Support for the EU among the bloc's citizens has risen to the highest level since early 1990s with two thirds favouring the concept of a European constitution, but a state-like EU charter is opposed most strongly by Brits, Danes and Swedes.

Fifty nine percent of respondents said they consider EU membership as beneficial for their country - the highest percentage since 1991, while overall support for the union stands at 57 percent, at its highest since 1994.

An opinion survey in five big EU states show most people want referendums on the new EU treaty in opposition to the current trend to agree a document that will be put only to national parliaments for ratification. According to an FT/Harris Poll published on Monday (18 June), 75 percent of Spaniards, 71 percent of Germans, 69 percent of Britons, 68 percent of Italians and 64 percent of French people consider the post-constitution treaty important enough to warrant a referendum

European institutions suffered a big loss of trust among EU citizens in the last six months, despite citizens' support for EU membership reaching the highest in over a decade, according to a Eurobarometer poll published on Tuesday.  

Links European Union Commission: Press Release: Standard Eurobarometer 68: Autumn 2007 (18 December 2007) Surveys and data Commission: Eurobarometer 68 (December 2007)

EU citizens are more ambitious about what Europe should do in the future than its political leaders, a new report summing up a series of popular debates shows.

The report, published on Thursday (10 May), refers to the main conclusions of all national debates and shows that citizens in most countries favour action in social policy where Europe does not hold key powers and which is generally not foreseen as an area for major future initiatives.

Writer and commentator on European affairs Kirsty Hughes and Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, senior analyst at the Elcano Institute in Madrid argue in this article, that the EU should move on following the institutional impasse and regain political confidence.

And today, surveys continue to show a lack of enthusiasm. A Financial Times poll of the five biggest EU states published on Monday (19 March) show that just 25 percent of those asked feel that life in their country had improved since it joined the EU, while 44 percent feel it has become worse.

When Bulgaria joins the EU on January 1, it will have completed almost two decades of painful transition from Soviet-style totalitarianism to western-style democracy. After an elaborate project to adapt the country to Europe's political and economic environment, most people believe Bulgaria has developed a liberal democracy. But while the country looks superficially as if it has thrown off the legacy of its old communist elite, socialist views and behavioral patterns remain deeply entrenched.

The new "consensus" on enlargement agreed by EU leaders constitutes a delicate compromise between pro-enlargement member states and those weary of further expansion, with political rifts set to re-emerge soon over Turkey and the Balkans.

This Living Review presents an overview of the research on European identity in the context of EU governance by focussing on central debates in the political science literature. It departs from the problems of disagreement between European citizens and their elites as well as the lack of a European demos. Against this background, the article discusses the functions of collective identity including the legitimation function and solution of collective dilemmas. Here, two perspectives pertaining to these functions are depicted: first, the issue of European public space and second, the integrative workings of European citizenship. Next, the article explores the conceptual and methodological problems of the research on European collective identity. In particular, it focuses on the conceptual ambiguity of the collective identity term and problems of operationalization and measurement. Following this, the article discusses the literature on identity technologies of the EU and identifies the shortcomings of identity technologies with regard to EU governance. Keywords:European identity, governance, legitimacy, democracy, public opinion, European public space

In the aftermath of the most ambitious accession bargain, attention has been directed away from EU negotiations to the tricky task of selling the elite enlargement deal to the voters. Focusing on past enlargement rounds, this book explores the link between diverse elite motives for pursuing membership and relatively constant variation in EU public support. National elite attitudes to integration contain the clues to the explanation of why utilitarian and affective support has traditionally been higher in some countries than in others. EU public opinion does not simply reflect the economic interests and identities of individuals faced with an objective reality. Rather, citizens face an endogenously shaped world, filtered by elite opinions on membership. Drawing upon "flexibility," this book advances a model of "theoretical differentiation" distinguishing between rationally and affectively driven entrants. Empirically, the tenacity of "differentiation" in EU legitimacy is examined through the use of original and secondary data. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this study aspires to further debate on enlargement and public opinion engaging scholars and EU practitioners.