Podgorica, (MINA) – Nearly 66% of citizens support Montenegro’s accession to the European Union, while one third of them believe that the country will join the EU by 2025, results of an opinion poll on public information about European integration have revealed.
The survey, which was presented on Tuesday, also revealed that 67.4% of respondents have positive opinion about the EU, which is the highest figure since 2013.
Olivera Komar of the DeFacto agency, which conducted the opinion poll, stated that the most frequent notions associated with the EU include high living standards, freedom to travel and job opportunities.
“A total of 65.6% of all respondents would support Montenegro’s accession to the EU in a referendum. If we take into account the respondents who said that they would vote in the referendum, this share increases to 86%,” Komar said.
According to her, nearly one third of respondents believe that Montenegro will join the EU by 2025.
She noted that citizens perceive the EU as the biggest donor in the country and that this view is shared by 50.2% of respondents.
Head of the EU Delegation in Montenegro Aivo Orav remarked that popular support for the EU is growing and that it currently stands at nearly 70%.
“It brings together different groups in Montenegro. The society is polarized and integration brings the society together. This is interesting for all relevant stakeholders in the country and a message that it is important to bring the society closer to the EU, because that unites them,” Orav stated.
He welcomed the fact that most citizens are aware that the EU is the biggest donor in Montenegro.
The EU Delegation Chief also noted that it is important that two thirds of young people have a good opinion about the EU ‘because they are the future EU citizen’.
Chief Negotiator Aleksandar Drljevic said that the survey has confirmed a stable upward trend when it comes to citizens’ opinion about Montenegro’s European integration.
“Therefore, contrary to general declining tendency as a country approaches EU membership, which we have seen in previous enlargements, we still have a stable two-thirds support at the end of the sixth year of our EU accession talks,” Drljevic noted.
He welcomed the fact that Montenegrin citizens have no dilemma that Montenegro’s future lies in the EU, since 86% of them would vote in favor of EU accession in a referendum.
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