SUPPORT TO GAIN SUPPORTERS - The Cohesion Policy and Public Attitudes towards the European Union

Abstract

In this thesis the aim was to explore the relationship between Cohesion Policy funding and individual EU support. The Cohesion Policy is the EU’s main tool to address regional disparities. It is redistributive and has a connection to citizens. Scholars argue that these characteristics of the Cohesion Policy could make it generate public support for the EU (Aiello et al., 2019; Borz et al., 2018). Citizens in a region which receives more Cohesion Policy funding are believed to be more supportive of the EU than those who receive less (Crescenzi et al., 2020; Rodríguez-Pose & Dijkstra, 2021); however, empirical evidence supporting this claim is mixed (Crescenzi et al., 2020; Dąbrowski et al., 2021). I use the Cohesify citizen survey from Borz et al. (2017) to investigate the Cohesion Policy’s impact on individual EU support. I am using a statistical, multilevel analysis and include Cohesion Policy funding as a factor at the regional/macro-level and awareness of the Cohesion Policy and control variables, such as socioeconomic factors and identity, at the individual/micro-level. I found that the relationship depends on both macro- and micro-level factors. Regional Cohesion Policy funding increases public support for the EU but only when individuals are aware of the Cohesion Policy. This holds for specific EU support, i.e., perceiving EU membership to be beneficial, but not for diffuse EU support, i.e., general attitudes towards European integration (Hobolt & de Vries, 2016). EU policy, regional contexts and individual factors are thus interlinked for understanding public opinion and what generates support for the EU.