Citizens not well informed about EU accession

Citizens not well informed about EU accession

It reveals a large drop in the level of awareness about the accession process, as 24 percent of respondents know that Serbia has started the negotiations - 11 percent less than in February 2014, when the previous survey was conducted.

37 percent think that Serbia is still waiting to be given a date for the start of negotiations, while the rest either think the country is in the early stages of accession or say they do not know, according to the survey conducted in November as part of the Argus Project that the agency is implementing with the support of the EU.

In a referendum, 54 percent of the population would vote in favor of EU membership, the same as nine months ago, while 25 percent would vote against, which is two percentage points lower than in February 2014, according to the survey conducted on a representative sample of 1,000 respondents.

These results are somewhat at odds with only 32 percent saying they had a positive attitude toward the EU - five percent more than in the previous poll, while 40 percent had a negative stance.

Strategic Marketing said that the reason more citizens support joining the EU than view it in a positive light was "probably because they expect to benefit from joining."

At the same time, 52 percent of respondents view Russia in a positive way, while 17 percent see it in a negative light.

However, 23 percent "would not like their child to live in Russia," Beta said in its report, while 70 percent would choose the EU for this scenario.

Respondents said membership would have positive effect on infrastructure and protection of human rights (70 percent), justice (69 percent), health care system (67 percent), education system (66 percent), the economic situation (64 percent); unemployment rate and the level of corruption (63 percent each).

There has been "a slight increase in optimism" since the last poll, with 37 percent now thinking Serbia will become an EU member by 2020, versus 35 in February.

18 percent believe that Serbia will never enter the EU, and as many think this will happen after 2020, while 27 percent said they did not know.

Almost three quarters of the population (74 percent) believe that Serbia will face "greater challenges" than other countries in the region during the accession negotiations, while 22 percent think it will have "the same treatment," nd four percent have no opinion about it.

In terms of conditions for accession to the EU, since February new ones have been mentioned by respondents: economic reforms (five percent) and sanctions against Russia (four percent).

"Kosovo is still seen as a condition that the largest number of citizens agree on, one in three (38 percent), while all others are below 10 percent," said Beta in its report about the survey.

According to the agency, respondents were asked "which is the next country in the region that will join the EU," and answered as follows: "Montenegro (38 percent), Serbia (27 percent), Macedonia (8 percent), Kosovo (7 percent), and Bosnia-Herzegovina (8 percent)."