How Do Croatian Mps Perceive EU Threats?

The EU integration was among the main aspects of Croatia’s foreign policy since it applied for its membership in 2003, which culminated in signing the accession treaty in 2011 and eventual accession in July 2013. A substantive research is now available about general elite and public attitudes towards the EU where both left and right oriented elites are pro-EU. However, little is known about how Croatian political elite perceives threats to supernational organization it recently joined.

 First, we want to identify which of the following threats are most worrisome for Croatian political elite; non-EU immigration, EU enlargement, primacy of national interests, interference of Russia in EU affairs, economic differences within EU and the ISIL. Second, we want to understand why MPs identified some threats as more dangerous than others. For this, we test individual and country level identity and interest based theories. We expect that the elite is more likely to perceive as EU threats, those that are more dangerous for their immediate national interests and security. Other threats, only remotely cling in the hearts and minds of the elites. The analysis rests on parliamentary elite surveys conducted in Croatia in the second half of 2014. This type of research is relevant because attitudes of national elites towards EU interests and security might have implications for willingness of member states to participate in activities tackling various challenges within and outside of the EU.