Three quarters of population wants Moldova to become an EU member – poll

If a referendum on Moldova’s accession to the European Union were held next Sunday, 72.2% would say “yes” to that, according to the results of the Public Opinion Barometer, recently published in Chisinau. The percentage of those back the idea of joining the EU is the poll’s largest ever. At the same time, more than 7% of the respondents would vote against joining the EU. Almost 76% of respondents think that the accession to EU will improve their life, and only 6% believe it will make their lives worse. Over 50% of respondents said that the accession would bring them more advantages, while 7% said it will disadvantage them. Nearly 9% of the poll participants believe that Moldova could become a full-fledged member of the EU within the next 1-3 years. 15% said that this can happen not less than in 4-5 years. 25% opted for a 10-year term and another 20% think that it will take Moldova about 20-25 years to become an EU member. Over 10% said Moldova will never become a member of the European Union. Moldova’s accession can be accelerated first of all by the Government, by the EU member countries’ favourable decision and by the reformation of the country following the examples of the newly-joined countries –the majority of respondents think. Almost 50% of the sample think that, in the process of joining the EU, Moldova can mostly rely on the support of Romania, while 16% believe that the support will come from Russia. 29% of the sample would vote for Moldova’s accession to NATO. This percentage decreased in comparison with previous polls, when almost 34% opted for this. At the same time, the number of those who do not want Moldova to become a NATO member rose to 27%. 26% of respondents said that NATO is a solution for the state’s security while 38% think that Moldova should stay neutral. The Barometer of Public Opinion was conducted by the Institute for Public Policies in May 2007 on a sample of 1100 persons from 76 localities.