Different views and different rights in a united Europe: Public opinion, minority rights and autonomy movements

Support for the expansion and further integration of the European Union has been dwindling in the past few years. Constitutional referenda in two European countries yielded negative results and popular enthusiasm for the European project has been waning ever since. The aim of this dissertation is to explore what factors may have contributed to this phenomenon. Three papers explore three different factors. The first paper focuses on a case study of the Hungarian minority in Romania in order to determine the impact of autonomy movements upon EU integration prospects. The second paper compares minority rights in the European Union, while assessing differences between influential and 'weak' member states. A comparative analysis of five member states shows that some ethnic minorities enjoy more rights than others. The third paper shows that public support for the EU is informed by different factors in Western and Eastern Europe. This finding, based on an analysis of the 2005 Eurobarometer survey, indicates that perceptions of the EU, its role and future are quite different in newer and older member states. Overall, results form the three papers reveal that pro-autonomy movements and different perceptions of the EU ultimately create tensions and rifts within or between member states, ethnic groups and citizens that do not bode well for the expansion and integration prospects of the European Union.