Ready to run Europe? Perspectives of a supranational career among EU national elites

Centred on the notion of supranational career, this chapter explores IntUne elite survey data to determine attitudes to rewards and career opportunities in a supranational context. After describing variance within the sample of economic and political elites concerning willingness for a supranational-level career, more intensive research on national political elites leads to a typology of different 'career orientations'. From the emerging fragmented and differentiated scenario, few politicians seem clearly oriented towards a career in Europe, but few explicitly exclude the perspective. Most national political elite tend to evaluate the supranational perspective positively, while being neither highly informed nor particularly committed to it. Country and party-specific factors seem to determine the compound framework of ambitions that marks the world of European national elites. However, other intervening factors, such as type of elite skills, social background, and perception of the distance between EU polity and traditional national institutions also have explanatory potential. © Oxford University Press, 2014.