At the same time, however, the percentage expressing a strong rejection of the EU is very low, and outright opposition to the EU is only a marginal position among national elites.

The institutions we consider here are the European Commission and the European Parliament, but we will also enquire about the role of member states, which play a crucial part in the decision-making process of the Union through the participation of national governments in the European Council and the Council of Ministers. If these are the views about what Europe should do in different policy fields, what is then the amount of resources national politicians would be ready to allocate to the European level in proportion to the global amount of taxes raised? That’s why a portion of every sale goes directly to supporting organizations helping to protect our land, water and air from human impact.The other threats mentioned, which are linked to external factors, were important for a more limited number of politicians. We must not forget that the European Union is not the product of a unified and coherent conception implemented by a centralized and dominant actor, but rather the result of a process of voluntary association and of the consensual delegation and pooling of sovereignty (Milward 1992; Moravčsik 1998) by the governments of the member states that have tried to keep a close control over the process. It is worth noting that the two dimensions reflect a right- and left-wing orientation, respectively: while conservatives fear enlargement and immigration, those who lean to the left are more concerned by challenges to the European social model. Economic elites seem, more or less, to share the same opinions as political elites when it comes to allocating policies to different authorities, but generally show a somewhat greater propensity to subtract competencies to both state and sub-state levels.

In the previous section, we have shown that national elites are almost unanimously convinced of the benefits of European integration for their countries, that they show a broad (but not always very warm) attachment to the supranational polity, and that they predominantly express support for continuing the process of integration.

e. from an evaluation of the benefits of European membership, attitudes of national elites towards Europe appear widely positive. A member of our staff will bid on your behalf and attempt to purchase the lot as cheaply as is permitted by other bids or reserves. Certainly, it is well known that national resistance to Europeanization of social policies has been stubborn (Ferrera 2005: chapter 4).

As a result of the historical process of integration, the EU today defines itself as a new political community composed of both (member) states and individual citizens, which we can describe as a combination of ‘collective’ and ‘individual’ citizens. No warranty whatsoever is given by the Auctioneer or the seller in respect of any lot and any express or implied warranties are hereby excluded. An interesting view of the northern Europe, including European part of Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, from a commercial and industrial perspective. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The answers of political elites indicate, first, that there is a large acceptance of the idea of the EU as a necessary instrument for economic re-equilibration among European countries (aid to regions).For the purposes of calculating the resale royalty the Pounds Sterling/Euro rate of exchange will be the European Central Bank reference rate on the day of the sale.

We may then ask whether feelings of belonging to one’s own country and to Europe are compatible or conflictual.However, when more detailed questions are asked, this broad positive evaluation is corrected by some significant feelings of dissatisfaction with regard to the representation of the country’s interests in the process of EU decision making, and even more concerning the balance of power between countries (Table 2. Reserves, and commission bids given by telephone are accepted only at the sender's risk and must be confirmed in writing before the date of the sale.