Most Russians Don’t Want to Join EU

News
and photos from the Moscow
News (24/03/2004)



The All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies has found after an opinion
poll that most Russians are not enthusiastic about integration with the

Photo: Nicholas Danilov, MosNews.com

European
Union, just ahead of an EU summit to be held in Ireland focusing on the EU’s
eastward expansion this year.



“
In general, we can note that Russians are cooling to the idea of closer ties
between Russia and the West,” a source in the center told RIA Novosti .

This “cooling” can be observed in the rise of the so-called “euro-sceptics,” the
source said. These are people who are convinced that Russia is not welcome in
Europe, and that it will never be treated as an equal partner. According to the
center’s poll results, their numbers have grown from 16 percent to 20 percent.



Meanwhile, the number of people wanting an equal partnership between Russia
and the EU, but against full integration in the EU has dropped from 35 percent
to
25 percent. In the past three years, the number of people who would vote for
Russia joining the EU has dropped to 45 percent, while the number of those
against has risen to 30 percent.



Only 12 percent of respondents said they felt a common European identity as
Russians. This contrasts greatly with other Eastern European nations, where
respondents
named their European identity one of the chief motivations for “joining
the family” of the EU.



In the study, the center reported that the importance of military cooperation
has fallen in the public mind. Meanwhile, respondents placed greater emphasis
on project development in such sectors as aviation and space exploration.



One of the more important factors for Russians was overcoming visa barriers
in travel to Europe. The center links this directly to the EU’s eastward expansion,
which would lead to countries like Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Cyprus
requiring a visa.