The cultural basis of trust in the European Union-how the ascription of values influences supranational political trust Abstract: Most studies on citizens' trust in the European Union refer to the explanatory models of performance evaluation, cueing, and feelings of belonging to the EU. In contrast, the influence of personal values, which is prominent in research on national political trust, has not been examined so far. In order to close this gap, we analyze the role of values which people ascribe to the EU, while also considering the "classic" theoretical approaches mentioned above. Using Eurobarometer data, multilevel analyses demonstrate that cueing effects are most important in generating trust in the EU, followed by performance evaluations and collective identities. Additionally, values also substantially influence citizens' trust in the EU, constituting an independent source of more diffuse support for the EU.

The article reports results of representative survey studies in border regions of Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and France. It addresses the proposition that border regions are laboratories of social integration in Europe, and tests to what degree the endowment with transnational social capital (TSC) predicts individual transnational identities with regard to the immediate border region and to Europe as a whole. Results show that only in the border region of Germany and France is there a relationship between accumulated TSC and strength of transnational identity, whereas in the border regions of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, the accumulated individual TSC does not predict transnational identities, which are there more an outflow of political attitudes and reflections about historic conflicts.

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