Bulgarians support the integration of the Western Balkan countries into the European Union and consider that their country has an interest the countries to become members of the European family, show the results of the survey conducted by Trend Research Center, commissioned by 24 Chasa newspaper.
Sixty percent of the Bulgarians support the accession of the Western Balkan countries to the European Union. Only 16% have negative opinion while a quarter of respondents do not have an opinion or cannot give an assessment.
Bulgarians give the strongest support for accession of Macedonia and Serbia. Seventy percent of the surveyed respondents support the Macedonia’s EU accession, while 67 percent support Serbia’s EU accession.
The lowest support for EU accession is given to Albania (45%) and to Kosovo (42%).
According to the survey, Bulgarians consider European integration of the Western Balkans as national interest. Half of the surveyed respondents believe that Bulgaria has interest of Western Balkans’ EU admission, and only 18 percent reported a negative opinion.
Fifty-two percent of the respondents believe that the accession of the countries in the region will have positive impact in Bulgaria.
The European perspective of the Western Balkans in the next decade looks optimistic for most Bulgarians. Forty-three percent believe that the countries of the region will be admitted to the EU in the next ten years, and 18 percent have negative view. Thirty nine percent do not have an answer to this question or cannot give an assessment.
