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.