Survey shows growing disappointment with EU among Macedonians 01/02/2008
While nearly half of Macedonians believe the EU is having a positive influence on the domestic economy, a growing number feel unsure the bloc is taking their country's interests into account. (Makfax, Balkan Insight, EU - 31/01/08) The Eurobarometer report published on Thursday (January 31st) finds that the number of people who believe the EU is taking into account Macedonia's interests significantly decreased. [EU] The number of Macedonians who feel optimistic about their country's prospects for joining the EU dropped significantly during the latter half of 2007, according to a new Eurobarometer survey published on Thursday (January 31st). Economic hardships, coupled with media reports suggesting that Macedonia is unlikely to be given a start date for its membership negotiations with the Union in the near future, are believed to have fuelled public disappointment within the EU candidate country. According to the survey, conducted between late September and early November, 40% of the more than 1,000 Macedonians polled believe that the EU is taking their country's interests into account, down from 54% who shared that view in the first half of 2007. Earlier results of a broader Eurobarometer survey for the same period had suggested that 76% of Macedonians support their country's bid to join the Union. That survey covered all 27 EU member states, the three candidate countries and the Turkish Cypriot community in Cyprus. The report published on Thursday gave a more complex picture."The opinion that the country is going in the right direction is given by 42% of those who see membership of the EU as a positive thing and by considerably fewer (31%) of those who believe that membership in the EU is a bad thing," it said. Despite the social and economic difficulties the country faces, 38% of Macedonians believe their country is moving in the right direction, while 33% hold the opposite view. While pointing to unemployment, the difficult economic situation and the crime rate as Macedonia's biggest problems, respondents also expressed a growing concern about rising prices and inflation. Survey data showed that 88% of Macedonians consider the employment situation in the country to be bad, which is eight times more than those who see it as good. The figures are in sharp contrast with those for the 27 EU members (EU27), where 61% of citizens think that the employment situation is bad and 36% that it is good. Concern about price hikes and inflation has led to a 9% increase -- from 7% in the Eurobarometer's spring survey to 16% in its survey in autumn -- in the number of Macedonians who see it as major problem for their country. Within the EU27, worry about inflation has risen 8% over the same period, to 26%. Among Macedonians, 48% believe that the EU has the greatest positive influence on the domestic economy and 25% see the bloc's least positive influence as being on inflation and housing. The Macedonian public appeared almost equally split on the question of whether their country should take decisions on the economy independently (49%) or should co-ordinate them with the EU (46%). The report also showed a decline in public trust in key national institutions during the period between the spring and autumn Eurobarometer surveys. Their confidence in the government dropped by 4% to 36%. Trust in the parliament fell by 9%, to 23%. This content was commissioned for SETimes.com http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2008/02/01/feature-01
