By Martin Banks - 8th December 2009
Across all countries, political parties were the least trusted of all the institutions the survey covered
Gallup
Support for EU membership remains high in western Balkan states, according to a new poll.
The Gallup poll shows that more than half of the people questioned in six of the seven countries in the region thought EU membership would be a good thing.
In Macedonia and Serbia, however, this share has declined over the past three years and support for EU membership remains low in Croatia.
Croats, it said, continued to see the EU critically – nearly four in ten thought of EU membership as being neither good nor bad and a relative majority, 43 per cent, would vote against accession in a referendum.
The findings were circulated at a Brussels conference, organised by the Friends of Europe think tank on Tuesday.
The debate, called "A new era in the Balkans," attracted a range of speakers, including outgoing EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn.
Other participants included Michael Leigh, director general of enlargement in the commission, Slovakian foreign affairs minister Miroslav Lajcak and Milo Dukanovic, prime minister of Montenegro.
According to the poll, interviewees in Bosnia and Herzegovina have softened their position towards EU accession: support has risen from 48 per cent to 66 per cent since 2009, with the percentage of people fearing that Bosnia would never join the EU decreasing from 16 per cent to 10 per cent during the same period.
EU support remained highest in Albania and Kosovo: 88 per cent EU accession to be desirable and close to 90 per cent would vote yes if a referendum on the subject was held now.
The poll added, "Across all countries, political parties were the least trusted of all the institutions the survey covered."
