The Perception of the European Union by Political and Economic Elites in Spain

Elite perceptions about Europe are very important in understanding the current trajectory of the European integration process, as well as the future perspectives for the continent. In this article, we present the main descriptive results of an empirical analysis looking at the attitudes of Spanish political and economic elites along the three dimensions of the IntUne project: representation, identity, and scope of governance. We examine the set of explanatory factors that may account for such attitudes. These factors are also tested through multivariate analyses. The 2007 IntUne project survey is used as the main database.