On March 7, 2019, president IVO Grigorij Mesežnikov attended the conference 15 Years of Czech Republic and Slovakia in EU. The event was hosted by IKDP-Institute for Christian Democratic Policy (Prague), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies, Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno and Anton Tunega Foundation in Bratislava.
IVO’s president took part in the panel on perception of EU by citizens. In his introductory presentation and in the following discussion he focused on the views of citizens of the Slovak Republic related to support for membership in the EU and confidence in the Union, its institutions and policies, perception of the benefits it brings, as well as perception of existent problems and threats. In his presentation he used data from the latest FOCUS agency’s survey on EU perception by Slovakia’s citizens (January – February 2019). Grigorij Mesežnikov pointed out the peculiarities of the EU perception by Slovak citizens. According to sociological surveys, the positive perception of the union (trust) prevails over the negative perception (mistrust), and support for membership in the EU prevails over the denial of membership. Credibility of the EU institutions is higher than credibility of the national institutions (all this manifests itself as a stable trend in people's views despite some situational fluctuations). Surveys conducted in Slovakia also revealed a certain inconsistency in citizens‘ views and showed unawareness concerning the benefits of membership in the EU for the country. It turns out that citizens' views on EU are influenced by factors linked to domestic developments that are not always directly connected with membership in the EU and that the expectations that citizens associate with the EU are often those that are projected rather to their own state and government.
Along with Grigorij Mesežnikov, the sociologist Martin Buchtík (STEM), journalists Ondřej Houska (Hospodářské noviny) and Tibor Macák (RTVS) discussed in the panel. Discussion was moderated by Hana Scharffová (Czech Television).
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
15 Years of Czech Republic and Slovakia in EU
Brno, 7 March, 2019
Conference is hosted by IKDP-Institute for Christian Democratic Policy (Prague), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies, Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno and Anton Tunega Foundation in Bratislava. Media partner is e EURACTIV.cz
2:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Opening:
Václav Hampl, Chairman of the Czech Senate’s Committee for EU Affairs
Petr Hladík, First Deputy Mayor of the Brno city
Matthias Barner, director of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Office in Prague for Czech Republic and Slovakia
2:15 PM - 4:00 PM
Panel 1: 15 Years after Czech Republic and Slovakia entered the EU. Have our expectations been fulfilled?
Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak Prime Minister from 1998 to 2006
Vladimír Špidla, Czech Prime Minister from 2002 to 2004
Georg Milbradt, Saxon Minister President from 2002 to 2008
4:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Coffee break
4:30 PM - 4:35 PM
Greetings to participants:
Chistoph Israng, German ambassador to the Czech Republic
4:35 PM - 6:00 PM
Panel 2: Europe closer to people. How Czechs and Slovaks percieve the membership in the EU after 15 years?
Martin Buchtík, director of the STEM institute for public opinion research
Ondřej Houska, journalist, Hospodářské noviny
Tibor Macák, secretary general, Association of European Journalists
Grigorij Mesežnikov, political scientist, president of the Institute for Public Affairs
6:00 PM - 6:05 PM
Closing remarks:
Vít Hloušek, director of the International Political Science Institute at Masaryk University
