Need a little love? Go South: patterns of trust across EU member states

Abstract

This paper examines the long-term impact of the economic crisis on citizens’ trust towards the EU. Political trust is expected to support the foundation of the institutions and, in this case, it reflects a diffuse form of support. The analysis studies what factors affect trust (additive index, 0 to 10) towards the EU, by using the 2007 and 2018 EB data. Findings demonstrate that the crisis affected lowering levels of trust towards the EU, but not how trust is structured. By applying a similar framework of analysis to examine support for the EU, the analysis finds that trust is explained by both affective and rational utilitarian dimensions, and the comparative research design stresses the distinctiveness of the domestic politics of EU integration. Education and the economy are likely to be critical factors across Eastern Europe; national identity holds a consistent negative relationship across Western Europe; and attachment towards the EU is always the most predominantly significant factor in Southern Europe.