Support from the citizens for membership in the European Union is unchanged since March 2014, shows new research in the field of public opinion for EU integration of Macedonia, conducted by the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis”. However, as the report says, the factor of the “name change” of the state in a significant proportion of the population is influential in their support for the integration process.
To join the EU with recognition to the country and its name, 58.8 percent gave a positive answer, and 23.8 percent of respondents, without concessions to the name and country, where 13.6 percent did not support Macedonia’s membership at all in the EU.
“The majority of citizens perceived stagnation in our integration into the EU compared with March 2014. There is a decreased perception that Macedonia is making progress on EU integration, and an increase of respondents who believe that no setback has happened. If in 2014 the majority of respondents considered that Macedonia had progressed somewhat, this year most of the respondents think that Macedonia has made none or little advance or 57.3 percent of them”, said the report.
32.1 percent believe the main reason why Macedonia is not yet part of the EU, according to respondents, is the negative domestic reforms. According to the report, there is a small drop in public opinion that the main reason why Macedonia is not yet part of the EU is because of its neighbouring countries, to this issue a 43.8 percent of respondents positively answered.
