Brussels, 10/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - In the EU25, 53% of Member States are in favour of further EU enlargement in coming years, according to the results of the latest Eurobarometer survey carried out between 2 October and 8 November this year. This represents 16 percentage points more compared to the survey at the beginning of the year. Those carrying out the study did not ask persons questioned to give their views on membership by any one country in particular.
This is the sign that Europeans have the feeling that the last enlargement was a success and that there were no major difficulties about taking in 10 new Member States in May, European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communications Strategy, Margot Wallström, commented on Friday. She nonetheless admitted the great disparity between, on one side, the opinions of citizens of the new Member States (whose citizens were the most in favour of future enlargement) and, on the other, the opinions in the former Member States. Thus, results show that 62% of citizens in Austria, the border country with four of the new Member States, are opposed to further EU enlargement. This is also the case of 57% of persons taking part in the survey in Germany, 54% in Luxembourg, 52% in Finland and 51% in France. At the top of the classification of citizens most in favour of further enlargement we have: Poland (78% for), Lithuania (76%), Slovenia (75%) and Slovakia (69%). After this come: Spain (67%, the Czech Republic (66%), Latvia (65%), Estonia and Hungary (63%), Greece (62%), Italy, Cyprus and Malta (61%), Ireland (54%), Portugal (51%) and then Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (50%).
The question of Turkey is not raised …. for now
The highly sensitive issue of Turkey's possible membership to the EU was not raised. Ms Wallström pointed out that the subject would be "tackled later". The overwhelming majority of EU leaders have accepted the fact that negotiations will be initiated with Ankara. European public opinion, however, expresses a number of different views and apprehends the demographic, economic, social and cultural impact of such membership. "There is tension and scepticism", the Commission's vice-president admitted. "To overcome the fear, the prejudice, the real differences that exist, all the institutions will have to invest in an information campaign to build cultural bridges between the EU and Turkey", she added. "This, I believe, is essential for the success of future enlargement because there is so much ignorance and so little information", she concluded.