The Between European And Eastern And Western Europe As The Eu Expands
1626 Words7 Pages
IV. In-Depth Analysis Throughout this analysis I will be breaking down the evidence to support my theory of EU membership satisfactions varying across Central/Eastern and Western Europe as the EU expands. I will begin by acknowledging that divide in Europe is not a new concept. In fact, European nations have been divided geographically, socially, economically, and culturally for centuries. In 2003 Hungarian scholar Elemer Hankiss acknowledged the difficulties that face divided Europe and provides insight on the historical divide in the following excerpt. “The candidate countries in East Central Europe—as well as the Balkans—need to reinvent themselves. They have to find something in which they can excel, they have to find their place in…show more content… “Regionalization in the CEECs has been undermined by the technocratic nature of the accession process and the contradictions of the EU’s own requirements and demands. While promoting the norms of regional self-governance and decentralization, the EU also emphasizes the speedy completion of accession preparations and the efficient use of EU resources, thus creating incentives for centralization and strengthening national government authorities vis-à-vis regional actors and interests.” (Marek and Baun 2002) In the process of obtaining evidence to back up my theory, my main resource data was the Eurobarometer interactive search system, which provided the empirical data, and trends questions used as evidence in this analysis of France and the Czech Republic. European Union member states tend to be satisfied with their membership, as the benefits they perceive their nation to be receiving is in direct correlation to the economic benefits of EU membership. The Eurobarometer system provided charts, which graphed the statistical data of the questions asked throughout this analysis. Between the years 1994-2011 a question was asked to French and Czech citizens of their belief that EU membership had benefitted or not benefited their country overall. Data was not provided of the Czech response until 2004, as they were not European Union members until that initiation year. The