Paper short abstract:

Based on semi-structured interviews with EU officials from Croatia, this paper examines processes of Europeanization through a "vertical", class-related axis.

Paper long abstract:

Brussels' European Quarter, in which a string of EU institutions are placed, may be the appropriate place to examine the realm (and range) of the European dream. Following Croatian accession in 2013, a number of highly educated Croatian citizens were employed, through an extensive and demanding procedure, in various EU institutions. From the perspective of the current job market in Croatia - as well as many other European countries which are experiencing a deep economic crisis - the unified and high salaries, stability, meticulously defined rights and obligations, and various privileges in EU institutions may seem like a dream job come true.

This paper is based on a set of semi-structured interviews which were conducted with EU officials in Brussels and Zagreb in 2014 and 2015. By following their career trajectories and examining qualifications required to obtain jobs within EU institutions, this research delineates the profile of winners of Europeanization processes, while simultaneously raising a set of class-related issues. Through such a focus, the paper will also observe the ways in which power asymmetries stemming from economic, political and cultural tensions between European core(s) and peripher(ies) play out within EU institutions.

This study is part of my long-term research into perceptions of the European Union in Croatia, which was principally focused on the "horizontal" axis of gradations of Europeanness (Kuus 2004). In this part of the research the importance of a "vertical", class-related axis within processes of Europeanization is more closely examined.