Almost 60% of the respondents of a poll said they are for the Republic of Moldova’s integration into the EU, while 31.5% are against. 8.6% of those interviewed don’t know or haven’t decided yet, while 0.5% didn’t answer. Also, in an eventual referendum on the accession to the EU, 55.4% would vote for, while 30.6% would vote against. 4.7% of those surveyed said they would not vote in this, while almost 9% don’t know or didn’t answer. The poll “Citizens’ perception of the process of European integration of the Republic of Moldova” was presented by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE).

“It should be noted that only 4.7% said that would not vote, which is important as the nationwide referendums held earlier in the Republic of Moldova didn’t witness broad participation, regrettably. Therefore, it is important to look at the percentage of those whole would like to take part or would not like to take part in referendums,” IPRE executive vice director Mihai Mogîldea stated in a news conference hosted by IPN.

Asked if the Republic of Moldova is ready to join the EU, 33.7% of those polled said it is “not at all ready”. 29.8% said the Republic of Moldova “is not really ready” for accession, 18.3% said “neither ready nor unready”, 12.2% said “rather ready”, while 2.1% said “very ready” to join the EU.

The respondents were asked what the Republic of Moldova would obtain after it joins the EU. Mihai Mogîldea said there are small differences between the responses, but the top response is “less corruption”, which is followed by such answers as “peace, safety, security”, “freedom to study/work wherever in the EU”, “stability/economic property” etc. The people also believe that after accession, the state will have medical services of a higher quality, better justice, law and order, higher investments, better education, etc.

IPRE executive director Iulian Groza said the poll forms part of the research project “Increasing the research centers’ role in supporting the national effort of European integration of the Republic of Moldova ThinkTanks4EUMembership”, which is implemented with support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF). The survey will contain also a quantitative analysis and will be conducted annually.

“Our hope is that this assessment of the citizens’ perception of the European integration will help civil society, the authorities, the development partners in what strategic communication, synthetizing of public opinion and informing of the citizens about the European integration process mean,” noted Iulian Groza.

The survey was conducted by the sociological company CBS-AXA during June 13 – 28, 2023. Sociologist Vasile Cantarji said that this is the first poll of such a scale devoted practically exclusively to the European integration. The poll covered a representative sample of 1,120 adult persons. The margin of sampling error is maximum 3%.

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