EU's Goals and Legitimacy

Abstract: This Masters’ thesis contributes to the empirical and theoretical academic literature on the debate on European integration in new EU member states. It analyzes Czech and Slovak debate on the Lisbon Treaty in the parliament and media through a Grounded Theory method of data analysis. Actors' differentiation between two issues in the debate lead to development of two dimensions on which actors positioned themselves – EU's ability to act in national interest and condition of sovereignty and democracy. In order to theorize outcomes of this empirical analysis, this thesis compares them to selected theoretical models, through which their explanatory power is considered. Theorizing with Eriksen and Fossum's (2004, 2007) three normative orientations to European integration – intergovernmental, supranational and postnational – shows that this theoretical model explains the Czech and Slovak Lisbon Treaty debate when a differentiation is made between EU's goals and legitimacy within the orientations. This thesis concludes from a comparison of the post-accession debate with Braun's (2008) pre-accession debate model that only a slight change took place in the debate on European integration in these two countries. It became less ideological and more concrete issues of EU's functioning were discussed.