Attitudes of the Czech public towards the competitiveness of the European union
The Czech public sees the main manifestation of the European Union’s competitiveness in its ability to assert itself in relation to global powers. Other indicators include a strong trading position in the global market, as well as the prosperity of EU member states. A majority of the public supports the introduction of measures aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the EU. The Czech public considers the removal of bureaucratic obstacles in the trade market to be the most necessary step to enhance competitiveness.
However, there is widespread scepticism about whether the European Union is capable of actually implementing such measures in practice. The Czech public sees a great opportunity for Czech firms to get investments and new prospects in the International Partnerships portfolio, which is currently overseen by the Czech European Commissioner Jozef Síkela. The cited data comes from a survey conducted by the STEM Research Institute for the Government Office of the Czech Republic in November 2024.
20 Years of Czech EU Membership in the Attitudes of the Czech Public
Since its establishment in 1991, the STEM institute has regularly surveyed the attitudes of the Czech population towards Europe and the European Union. On the 20th anniversary of EU accession, let us look at how Czech citizens’ attitudes towards EU membership have evolved.
In the few years after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which brought about the fall of the communist regime in then-Czechoslovakia, the Czech population was strongly pro-Western, with a liberal view of the market economy and positive expectations for the future. In November 1993, 85% of Czechs expressed their determination to join the European Community. “At that time, it was a distant goal, a kind of symbol of our country belonging to the West – it was more of an abstract idea than a concrete one,” founder of STEM Jan Hartl recalls.
