On the threshold of the ‘Union of Closed Doors’: a social portrait of Ukrainian Eurooptimists and Eurosceptics

Abstract

Over the last few decades, eurooptimism and eurosceptisicm has been in the focus of attention of public, political and scientific discourse in the EU countries. The Ukraine’s European integration course implemented through institutional and legal changes within the EU- Ukraine Association Agreement brings up to date this discourse in the Ukrainian society. The differentiation of social attitudes is absolutely relevant to the previously studied phenomena such as socio-cultural zoning of the Ukrainian regions. At the same time, the high prevalence of these attitudes as well as the elements of social portrait of the optimists and sceptics of the euro integration are of high interest. The data allow, on the one hand, assessing the degree of solidarization in the Ukrainian society and, on the other hand, analyzing the legitimacy and public support for Ukraine’s European integration aspiration. The empirical basis of the study is the data of the EU Neighborhood Barometer conducted in 2013–2014, i.e. in the time of the extremely high political mobilization of both supporters and opponents of the European integration course which hypothetically helps to evaluate the limits of this discourse.