Trust in the EU as a Leading Force in Civil Protection

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors address the question of why public officials and practitioners in civil-protection agencies support or oppose cooperation within the framework of the EU. They do so by investigating whether differences in social trust and public-administration culture are associated with varying levels of confidence in national and EU-level civil-protection institutions. The results show that, in countries where officials trust their own national institutions to a high degree, said officials also tend to trust EU-coordinated civil protection. By contrast, in places where officials trust their own national institutions to a lesser degree, officials are also less likely to trust EU-coordinated efforts in civil protection. In addition, institutional trust derives from evaluations based on the administrative culture of institutions. The more officials see EU-level institutions as allowing for professional judgement and autonomy, the more highly they tend to regard them.