Orientation towards EU Integration and Existence of Euroidentity – Serbian Students Attitudes Cover Image

Orientation towards EU Integration and Existence of Euroidentity – Serbian Students Attitudes
Orientation towards EU Integration and Existence of Euroidentity – Serbian Students Attitudes

Author(s): Uroš V. Šuvaković
Subject(s): Economic policy, Higher Education , Politics and Identity
Published by: Институт за политичке студије
Keywords: accession to EU; Euro-identity; students’ attitudes; Serbia;

Summary/Abstract: This paper is based on the empirical research conducted among students in Serbia, at two universities: University of Belgrade and University in Priština with the temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica. Results obtained show that the issue of EU accession and the feeling of European identity are not one and the same thing. While students show a closely pro- European orientation, the percentage of accession support varies due to the influence of various factors (developments in Kosovo and Metohija, various statements by EU officials that are perceived as conditionalities for Serbia). However, when asked if they had some supranational identification, i.e. if they felt like Europeans, a small number of them identified themselves as such. This finding on the absence of a European identity combined with a positive orientation regarding the accession to the EU affirms Brzezinski’s thesis from his interview with D. Rothkopf (July 2014) that the “EU then turned out to be, in the end, essentially a distributed arrangement in Brussels involving money and quid pro quos, but very little sense of common purpose”.

  • Issue Year: 12/2015
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 61-79
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: English