Policy Europeanization and EU Support in Candidate Countries

Public support for the EU is critical for successful accession of candidate countries to the EU. Although it has extensively been studied in the context of member states, little is known about public support for the EU in candidate countries. Most of the existing studies remain patchy and merely mirror individual-level determinants of public support for the EU in member states. Moving beyond individual level explanations, this study draws on the theories of policy feedback and the Europeanization literatures in order to analyze the extent to which policy Europeanisation in candidate countries shape citizens’ support for integration. Furthermore, it relies on candidate country reports annually published by the Commission for key measures of Policy Europeanization as well as on Eurobarometer surveys for the EU Support measure. It posits that higher levels of policy Europeanization within a candidate country leads to higher public support for the EU. Additionally, it explores so-called accession fatigue as a potential moderator of that relationship. The study covers five candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye) over the period between 2015-2024 and uses multilevel modelling techniques. Preliminary results confirm that both the level and momentum of policy Europeanisation drive up EU Support in candidate countries while those feedback effects are weakened by accession fatigue.