Poll shows majority of Lithuanians support further EU enlargement

Delfi web site, Vilnius
27 Jul 04

Two-thirds of Lithuanian residents support further enlargement of the
EU, and the majority of them are in favour of Ukraine’s admission to
the EU in the near future, a press release has said. The results were
obtained though interviews with people comprising a representative
sample of the country’s population, carried out by the public opinion
and market research centre Vilmorus on 8-11 July on the Foreign
Ministry’s request. As many as 62.6 per cent of respondents said they
supported further expansion of the EU, 12.6 per cent said they were
against it and 24.8 per cent were undecided. Those who back further
enlargement are mainly people aged 18-29 (67.3 per cent in their age
group ), 50-59 (66.7 per cent), 60-69 (68.2 per cent), as well as
schoolchildren (76.6 per cent) who were interviewed outside the scope
of the poll .

Those against the admission of new countries are mainly people aged
40-49 (14.9 per cent), university graduates (18.3 per cent), as well
as those whose monthly income per family member is less than 501 litas
176 dollars (19.9 per cent). The greatest number of the supporters of
EU enlargement live in Lithuanian towns, except five largest cities
(68.2 per cent), while the majority of its opponents live in Vilnius
(19.8 per cent).

The poll showed that people mainly support the admission of Ukraine,
Turkey, Croatia, Moldova and Georgia to the EU in the short term,
while opinions differ on the admission of Belarus, Armenia and
Azerbaijan.

As many as 36.9 per cent of those interviewed said they were in favour
on Ukraine’s admission in the short term; 31.8 per cent mentioned
Turkey; 31.7 per cent Croatia; 24 per cent Moldova and 20.3 per cent
Georgia.

The statement that Georgia should be admitted to the EU in ten years’
time was backed by 15.8 per cent of the respondents, while 14.6 per
cent said that this should happen in the long term. Ukraine scored
15.2 per cent and 10.0 per cent, respectively; Moldova 14.5 per cent
and 13.7 per cent; Croatia 10.7 and 7.8 per cent; and Turkey 9.5 and
7.7 per cent. Those opposing Georgia’s EU membership made up 15.3 per
cent, in case of Turkey and Moldova the percentage was 12.2 per cent,
Croatia 10.7 per cent and Ukraine 9.2 per cent.

Belarus’s entry to the EU in the short term was backed by 21.5 per
cent of the respondents, 12.6 per cent said this should happen in ten
years’ time, 16.3 per cent mentioned the long term and 20.2 per cent
said they opposed this altogether.

Armenia’s short term EU entry got the backing of 17.6 per cent of
those interviewed, 15.9 per cent said this should happen after a
decade, 15.2 per cent indicated the long term prospect and 16.2 per
cent said they were against its EU entry. In the case of Azerbaijan
the percentage was 14.7 per cent; 14.6 per cent; 15.7 per cent and
18.6 per cent, respectively.

Vilmorus interviewed 1,005 Lithuanian residents, aged 18 years and
older, from 18 towns and 58 villages after selecting them through
multistage random sampling. The margin of error of the results is 3
per cent.