THE IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE EUROPEAN IDENTITY IN SLOVAKIA

This paper analyses whether the change of European identity perception among citizens of the EU member state Slovakia has emerged in relation to the onset of the economic crisis in Europe. We assume that the economic crisis has a negative impact on the perception of collective identity. Has the rising discussion about the future of EU and normative and institutional changes in EU as a reaction to crisis weakened the feeling of belonging to Europe among citizens in pro-European Slovakia? The aim of this paper is to explain the impact of the debt crisis on the construction of European identity of Slovak citizens. The data from the Eurobarometer survey are analysed with the use of correlation and binary logistic regression. By this quantitative analysis, it we examine whether the cumulative hypothesis of Wessels' theory of political support used for the case of European identity in times of crisis is valid also for the case of Slovakia. The basic research question is defined as: Does the debt crisis negatively affect the Slovak's perception of European identity?