More than 51% of the citizens consider the Republic of Moldova will become a member of the European Union over the next ten years. In this process, the most pressing challenges remain the fight against corrupiton, economic development and the justice sector reform, shows the poll “Citizens’ perception of the process of European integration of the Republic of Moldova” that was presented by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE).
Asked when the Republic of Moldova could join the EU, 30.1% of those surveyed said that this will be possible during the next 2-5 years. 21.5% of the respondents said 10 years, 6% – over 20 years, 5.1% – over 30 years, while almost 30% said never, as they consider.
“However, we must say that 62.6% of the respondents believe that our country will become a member of the European Union sooner or later,” IPRE executive vice director Mihai Mogîldea stated in a news conference held by IPN.
As to the commercial relations, the poll shows that the EU continues to be perceived as the main commercial partner of the Republic of Moldova. “The citizens’ perception of the EU’s weight in the trade with the Republic of Moldova in general corresponds to official statistics and this is gladdening,” noted Mihai Mogîldea.
The survey also shows that most of the respondents understand well the EU’s assistance areas for the Republic of Moldova. At the local level, almost half of the respondents know about several or more EU-funded projects to develop infrastructure and to repair schools and kindergartens.
IPRE executive director Iulian Groza said that nearly half of those polled consider the keeping of neutrality is the best security solution at the moment. Also, one quarter of the respondents believe that Moldova’s entry into the EU will be conditional on the entry into NATO. ‘This perception is kept primarily due to the support of that part of society that wants the Republic of Moldova to join NATO. At the same time, there is evidently no direct tie, at least for now, between these two organizations or integration processes. However, judging by the experience of other states that joined the EU, such a reality applies to many of them, but there is no yet direct conditioning,” stated Iulian Groza.
The survey was conducted by the sociological company CBS-AXA during June 13 – 28, 2023 and covered a representative sample of 1,120 adult persons. The margin of sampling error is at most 3%. 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).
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