Andreas von Beckerath shares poll results: Nearly 40% of Serbian citizens support EU membership

The Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Serbia, Andreas von Beckerath, shared the results of a poll on Friday showing that 39.8 percent of Serbian citizens support EU membership, and said that he views the results as a "solid majority in favor of Serbia joining the EU.”

Writing on the social media platform X, he noted that perceptions of the EU’s motives for enlargement show that a lot of work remains in the EU’s public communication and efforts to present fact-based information.

“Looking forward to engaging with Serbian citizens to explain why we believe that Serbia’s future lies within the EU,” von Beckerath wrote.

The European Policy Centre’s key findings show that 39.8 percent of Serbian citizens support Serbia’s membership in the EU, 33.8 percent are opposed, and 26.4 percent hold a neutral stance.

In the event of a referendum on EU membership, 85.3 percent of respondents said that they would vote; of those, 41.6 percent would vote in favor of membership, 32.4 percent would vote against, and 26 percent remain undecided.

Noting from this poll a solid majority in favour of 🇷🇸 joining the 🇪🇺. But perceptions on 🇪🇺’s motives for enlargement shows that a lot of work remains in our public communication and our efforts to present fact based information. Looking forward to engaging with Serbian…

Support for EU membership is higher among highly educated citizens and declines with lower levels of education.

Support for EU membership is the highest among individuals aged 18–29, and the lowest among those over 60.

Almost a quarter of citizens (23.9 percent) believe that Serbia will never join the European Union, 21.9 percent do not know how to assess the likelihood of joining, and only 6.9 percent believe it will happen before 2030.

The poll also revealed that 41.6 percent of citizens believe the EU is more interested in pursuing its own political and economic interests in the region than in the state of democracy and the rule of law.

Furthermore, 41.8 percent believe the EU seeks to integrate Serbia primarily to gain access to lithium and other natural resources.

Additionally, 43.9 percent of citizens believe it is more important to the EU that Serbia imposes sanctions on Russia than for it to become a developed democracy.

Less than one third of citizens believe that the EU applies the same rules to all candidate countries and consider the EU to be a reliable partner for Serbia, while 25.7 percent of citizens believe that the EU genuinely wants to integrate Serbia into the European community.

Slightly more than half of citizens (51.7 percent) believe that democracy is the best form of government regardless of the circumstances, while 34.2 percent stated that they feel European. A relative majority (39 percent) assess the state of the rule of law as poor or very poor, while more than half (51.7 percent) stated that they rarely or never follow news related to the EU.

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