A total of 53 percent of Croatian citizens would vote in favour of Croatia's EU entry while 40 percent would vote against joining the bloc, according to an opinion poll on Croatia's admission to the European Union, commissioned by the Delegation of the EU to Croatia and carried out by the Ipsos Puls agency in the period from 8-26 July 2011, right after the country completed its EU talks.
The agency said that 57% of probable voters would vote for EU entry in a referendum, while 37% would vote against.
Dragan Bagic of Ipsos Puls pointed out that the surveyed support of Croatian citizens for EU entry had been stable since the first such survey in 2003. Since that year, support has always been around 50 percent, Bagic said, adding that the fact that the latest survey was conducted immediately after the completion of EU entry talks did not affect the results.
Bagic and the head of the Delegation of the EU to Croatia, Paul Vandoren, have no doubts about a positive outcome of the referendum in which 70 percent of Croatians would be willing to participate, which is more than the turnout at parliamentary elections. The poll shows that 28 percent of Croatians would not participate in the referendum.
According to Bagic, there are no groups dominantly in favour or against EU entry.
The latest poll shows that Croatians expect of EU membership significant improvements in the rule of law and in environmental protection and education, but that they also fear living standards could further decline owing to expected price hikes.
When it comes to knowledge of the EU, speaking in school jargon, Croatians would barely get a passing grade as only 50.2 percent passed the EU knowledge test.
Ambassador Vandoren said he was pleased with the support of Croatian citizens to EU entry. He also said that when it came to the ratification of Croatia's accession treaty in the 27 European parliaments, Croatians did not need to fear "EU enlargement fatigue".
Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Gordan Jandrokovic expressed satisfaction with the results of the survey, which covered 1,010 respondents.
"This is a very professional opinion poll which covers a wide spectrum of people," Jandrokovic said, announcing that the government would continue to work on informing the public of the benefits of EU membership.
