The role of identity in support for supranational integration in EU Foreign and Security Policies

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of popular identification with Europe and the European Union on the level of governments' willingness to consent to supranational reforms of foreign and security policies. Applying ordinary least squares (OLS) regression on a series of statistical analyses based on data provided by Eurobarometer and state positions prior to the three major EU treaties (the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty and the 2004 Constitutional Treaty), this paper concludes that higher levels of European identification by citizens greatly increase domestic support for joint decision-making in foreign and defence policies which in turn pushes governments to adopt more integrationist positions during negotiations.