Research: Over 60 percent of citizens of North Macedonia support EU accession

At the promotion of the Analysis, organized by the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje (IDSCS) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the EU Ambassador in the country, Michalis Rokas, stated that there is an irrevocable desire of the European Union to assist in the Euro-integration process of North Macedonia.

Skopje – Public support for joining the European Union remains at 62 percent. The youngest and oldest respondents are the most reserved, showing greater indecisiveness. Perception of the influence of the USA has significantly dropped among our citizens – by 20 percent compared to last year, according to the findings of the Public Opinion Analysis for the Macedonian EU Accession Process in 2024 based on a survey from October to December last year.

At the promotion of the Analysis, organized by the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje (IDSCS) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the EU ambassador in the country, Michalis Rokas, stated that there is an irrevocable desire of the European Union to assist in the European integration process of North Macedonia. – We are here to help implement the necessary reforms in the country as soon as possible so that citizens can see the benefits of these reforms in real time, said Rokas.

He emphasized that the survey shows that it is necessary to thoroughly review these findings and see where we can make certain improvements.

– On the one hand, we need to help by focusing on accelerating and implementing the necessary reforms as soon as possible so that citizens themselves can see the benefits of the reforms in real time. On the other hand, politically, we need to address the larger challenges that are happening in Europe, emphasized Rokas.

The survey results show that the EU is perceived as the biggest economic partner, donor, and ally of the country, and the perception of citizens that the EU has significant influence as an external factor is growing. Asked about foreign policy priorities, citizens ranked EU accession as the top priority they would like to see from the Government.

Before presenting the research findings, Marko Troshanovski, President of IDSCS, announced that among the youth, an “openness for positive attitudes towards China” was observed, and among the oldest – for Russia.

– We can state that the majority of citizens still support the Union, and it remains the most desired partner. What is interesting is that the most reserved in terms of support for the European Union are the youngest and oldest respondents. Among them we see greater indecisiveness, indecision, and openness to positive attitudes towards China among the young, and Russia among the oldest generation. This is not a significant percentage, but it is worth noting that it exists, stated Troshanovski.

He clarified that among the young, the priority remains accession to the Union, only that the percentage of cooperation with China and Russia “is slightly higher compared to other age categories”. This does not mean, he said, that there is “a turn towards China” because the question about China was asked for the first time in this year’s survey, and there are no comparable trends as before and no in-depth analysis of the reasons.