Interactions and identities of Czech civil servants on their way to the EU

This paper is based on empirical research carried out on a sample of Czech civil servants dealing with EU accession. It argues that there is a strong relationship between, on the one hand, the domestic interactions of Czech civil servants and their interactions with the EU institutions, and, on the other hand, the ways in which they identify themselves professionally and institutionally, together with their views on European integration. The paper advances three empirical claims. Firstly civil servants tend to identify with the level of the national administration at which they experience most intensive interactions. Secondly, the more people interact with the EU, the more they like it and the better knowledge of the EU they have. Thirdly, institutions behave as actors which are to some extent autonomous vis-a-vis domestic politics.