Austrian Poll: Croatia Most Desired Balkan EU Candidate

The head of OeGfE, Paul Schmidt | Phot by: OeGfE

According to the poll, 54 per cent of respondents were in favour of Croatia being the preferred candidate for EU accession while 24 per cent were against its accession.

Among countries which emerged from the former Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia, SFRY, the support by Austrians is relatively low and was mostly was unchanged from results taken in a poll last year.

Over one quarter, 28 per cent, welcomed the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while 47 per cent were against. 27 per cent welcomed the accession of Montenegro with 46 per cent against it.

Meanwhile, support for Macedonia’s EU accession is 25 percent and 46 percent opt against it. The country marks the highest drop in support from September last year, when a relatively high 39 per cent of Austrians were in favour of its EU accession.

Only 25 per cent thought that the accession of Serbia was a good idea while 51 per cent were against. Albanian accession was supported by mere 21 percent of Austrians while 56 per cent opposed it.

The survey presents no data on Albania, which is also seeking EU membership.

The head of the Society, Paul Schmidt, indicated that the current “debt crisis [in EU] has had the biggest influence on the opinion of Austrians” adding up to the EU enlargement fatigue.

He added that the survey showed that for most Austrians overcoming the debt crisis is considered a priority that overshadows EU enlargement.
 
Broken down by age, Austrians under 25 seemed more supportive of plans for further EU enlargement while the elderly were generally more prone to rejecting it.

The survey also showed that those with a higher level of education were generally more in favour of EU enlargement.

The Austrian Society for European Politics describes itself as a politically independent NGO that stands for open dialogue on current European issues and their relevance for Austria.

Their latest survey was carried out on a representative sample of 1008 Austrians in September.