Citizens not well informed about EU accession

Citizens not well informed about EU accession

BELGRADE -- A majority of Serbian citizens would vote in favor of joining the EU in a referendum, although only a quarter know the current state of the accession process.

This is according to a poll conducted for the Beta news agency by Ipsos Strategic Marketing.

It reveals a large drop in the level of awareness about the accession process, as 24 percent of respondents know that Serbia has started the negotiations - 11 percent less than in February 2014, when the previous survey was conducted.

37 percent think that Serbia is still waiting to be given a date for the start of negotiations, while the rest either think the country is in the early stages of accession or say they do not know, according to the survey conducted in November as part of the Argus Project that the agency is implementing with the support of the EU.

In a referendum, 54 percent of the population would vote in favor of EU membership, the same as nine months ago, while 25 percent would vote against, which is two percentage points lower than in February 2014, according to the survey conducted on a representative sample of 1,000 respondents.

These results are somewhat at odds with only 32 percent saying they had a positive attitude toward the EU - five percent more than in the previous poll, while 40 percent had a negative stance.

Strategic Marketing said that the reason more citizens support joining the EU than view it in a positive light was "probably because they expect to benefit from joining."

At the same time, 52 percent of respondents view Russia in a positive way, while 17 percent see it in a negative light.

However, 23 percent "would not like...