Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Slovakia at the top of the EU (in terms of trusting it)
It seems to me that this article comes up with certain reasons for why Slovaks answered the survey the way they did, but ignores other possible reasons. For example, it says that Slovaks trust the EU because they don’t trust their own government. But maybe it’s just because they don’t know much about the EU or because they don’t think critically about it. I am sure there are other explanations as well. Also, at the end of the article, it notes that Slovaks are in favor of enlarging the EU, but not of including Albania, Turkey or Kosovo because of their weak economies. Surely cultural reasons (some people might call it "Islamophobia") also played at least a minor role. Is the Spectator turning a blind eye to this? Focus your response on the survey results and the article’s interpretation of them, but you can also say how you would have responded to the survey’s questions and why.
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It is well known that EU has a thriving support from Slovakians. Probably the best example are the results of the Slovak EU membership referendum where 94 percent of all votes supported the membership. Not surprisingly we have ended up on the top of this years EU opinion polls when it comes to the trust in EU. As many as 71 percent of Slovak citizens said that they trust the EU, which is 28 percentage points above the EU average. while national institutions - such as parliament, the government and the courts - don't enjoy such high ratings. The latest Eurobarometer has also proved that Slovak citizens have an above-average positive attitude towards further enlargement of the EU by new states, with 68 percent of them supporting this. On the other hand, Slovaks are very picky when it comes to which countries should join the EU in the future. The biggest level of support received the relatively developed countries like Switzerland, Norway and Croatia, however we don’t want to see the less developed and culturally distant countries like Albania, Kosovo and Turkey becoming members of the EU.
ReplyDeleteResults of the opinion poll indicate that there is something wrong wih our domestic politics. It is enough to compare the behaviour of members of the European and Slovak parliament. Slovak parliament may rather remind people of a playhouse than of an institution that runs the country. But that may not be the only cause, as a Slovak I can say that it is in our nature to be sceptical and mistrustful about each other. Even in history, the Slovak destiny was always in hands of someone else- Austrians, Hungarians and Czechs. Today we have tendency to do the same thing, by relying on the EU.
But I believe that there are more practical causes of this phenomena. After years of isolation and scepticism in foreign politics under Vladimir Meciar, Slovakia had to work very hard to achieve the European status. There was a risk that Slovakia would definitely become one of the eastern states such as Ukraine or Belorussia. Fortunately this didn’t happen thanks to the Slovak hostility towards Russia oriented countries, after the 40 years long occupation. Slovakia has launched several extremely aggressive reforms in order to enter the EU. Many diplomatic and economical efforts have been devoted to the entrance to the EU and the Euro zone.
What I think makes the differences in trusting EU between Czech Republic and Slovakia is the political leadership. Another negotiator of the division of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Klaus is the Czech president. In contrast, Meciars party HZDS-LS isn’t even in the Slovakian parliament. Both of these major players are big euro sceptics, but one of them has a much greater influence onto the society than the other one.
Therefore I think that Slovakians have their reasons to trust the EU, but I wish they would attend the euro elections in greater numbers.
This is a very interesting article, which shows us that Slovaks really believe in European Union and that they finally understand the importance of our membership in the EU. Although I am personally a bit skeptical about the EU policy and there have certainly been many wrong decisions in the EU parliament, I believe that Slovakia would be in a diametrically different (worse) economic and political situation than it is now if it didn’t become a member.
ReplyDeleteI am very glad about the results of the survey, which show us that Slovaks believe in brighter future of Slovakia as a member of the EU. As the article states, Slovaks do not trust the national institutions. This might be caused by the fact that there have not been any changes in the system for decades and the power has been most of the time in the hands of old communists, which are considered either liars or thieves. The people cannot be blamed, Slovaks always had to vote for smaller evil, as there has not been any other choice. And so the power was misused and the country stagnated. With the entrance of Slovakia in the EU, Slovaks felt that politicians won’t be able to harm the country anymore. This is not completely true, although restrictions from EU don’t allow Slovak politicians to do whatever they want and so the country is being slowly transformed from an Eastern Block country into a developed western country.
Another reason which the survey takes into account is the fact that with entering into the EU (and Shengen), Slovaks are enabled to freely travel, work and study in foreign countries with no restrictions. This way, they start to perceive the difference between developed western countries and Slovakia. Slovaks know that EU will help Slovakia to catch up on the west and therefore trust its authorities more.
Slovaks are for enlarging the EU. This is because it opens new possibilities for Slovak citizens. The survey shows us, however, that Slovaks are not supporting some Balkan countries. This might be caused by long-lasting stereotypes of Slovaks that for example Albania is thick-sown with Mafia and criminals. Kosovo has not yet been recognized by Slovakia and its rebelling tendency might appear as potential danger to some citizens.