Attitudes and perceptions of EU enlargement

1
Attitudes and perceptions of EU enlargement
what responses?

• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Ahmed Turkic, M.A.
• Directorate for European Integration
• Ohrid, September 2006

2
DEI and awareness raising on the European
integration process

• Importance of the transparency of the EI Process
• Directorate has established excellent
  relationship with the media and the public
• TA Project for Promotion Departement
• Working together with the Delegation of the
  European Commission in BH.

3
Public opinion poll, April 2006

• Delegation of the European Commission in BiH has
  ordered last poll at April this year
• Quantitative face to face interviews
  Perception of the European Union in BH

4
Methodology
Target population Population of BH Respondents 15 years old
Method to be applied Face-to-face interviews in respondents household
Type of sample National representative sample according to gender, age, ethnicity, region and type of settlement. Double stratified sample according to region (entities, cantons and municipalities) and settlement size
Sample size N1000 respondents
Sample frame Lastest estimations of statistical offices in Federation BH and Republic of Srpska
Sample error 2,53
Number of starting points 103 ( 8 to 11 respondents per one starting point)
Selection of starting points within regions Random selection from the database of all settlements in BH
Selection of households within selected starting point Random walk technique
Selection of respondents within household Quota by age and gender
Period of interview March 2006
Interviewing Duration up to 50 minutes With open-ended questions
5
Demographic characteristics of the sample
Age 15-29 24
Age 30-44 30
Age 45-59 25
Age 60 21
Education Primary school 27
Education Secondary or vocational school 59
Education High school or University 13
Gender Male 49
Gender Female 51
Nationality Bosniak 49
Nationality Croat 11
Nationality Serb 40
Regions/Cantons Region Bihac 8
Regions/Cantons Region Tuzla 14
Regions/Cantons Region Central Bosna 17
Regions/Cantons Region Hercegovina 10
Regions/Cantons Region Sarajevo 12
Regions/Cantons North RS Brcko 25
Regions/Cantons East RS 14
Entities RS 61
Entities FBiH 39
6
What is your first association when someone
mentions European Union
The first association of the majority was
abolishment and visa facilitation
7
What is your general opinion about European
Union?
74 of respondents have positive opinion on EU
8
What is your general opinion about European
Union?- age
Young people have more positive opinion
9
What is your general opinion about European
Union?- by entity
73 of the respondents from FBiH have positive
opinion, 64 from RS
10
According to your information, has EU brought
advantages or disadvantages to ordinary citizens
of member states from its establishment until
present day
Respondents consider EU brings more advantages
than disadvantages
11
Knowledge and information about EU
12
For each of the following statements about the
European Union could you please tell me whether
you think it is true or false?
13
Sources and confidence of information about EU
14
Please assess how much you learnt about the
situation in the EU and the way EU institutions
work from each of the following?
15
In general, do you feel to be sufficiently
informed about the way EU works, as well as about
the advantages and disadvantage of the
membership in the EU, or do you feel you lack
information?
Majority of respondents consider they get almost
no information about the EU and its institutions.
16
From which three areas from this list you miss
the most information on BH accession to the EU?
17
Please tell me for each of the following persons
and institutions how much you personally trust
them when they talk about the EU?
Respondents mostly trust the university
professors
18
Perception of BH integration into to the EU
19
Generally speaking, do you or do you not
personally support BH integration into the EU?
The largest percentage of respondents support BH
integration into the EU
20
Generally speaking, do you or do you not
personally support BH integration into the EU?
By nationality
Bosniaks show the most affiliation to BH
integration
21
How probable is that you would vote on the
referendum about BH accession into the EU? - Total
71 of respondents would vote on the referendum
22
How would you vote on such a referendum if you
would go on the poll and vote? - Total
54 respondents would vote FOR BH accession to
the EU
23
BH accession negotiations with the EU have
started recently. In your opinion, what will be
the distribution of power in the negotiation
process like? Total
Majority of respondents consider that BH would
be in subordinate position
24
Taking everything into account, would you expect
that BH will gain more advantages or
disadvantages if it becomes a full member of the
EU?
34 of respondents consider that BH would gain
some more advantages than disadvantages by
becoming a full member of the EU
25
General attitude toward BHs membership in the EU
26
Please state for each item do you expect that BH
would get advantages or disadvantages if it
becomes a member of the EU, or membership in the
EU would not affect this field at all.
27
In which three of following fields do you expect
the most positive effects once BH becomes full
EU member?
Positive effect would have the greatest impact on
standard of BH citizens, unemployment rate
would increase
28

In which three of following fields do you expect
the most negative effects once BH becomes full EU
member?
Negative effect would be corruption level in
public institutions and agricultural production
29
Public Reactions

• Majority support
• VISA issue!!!!! regional problem
• No survey conducted by local authorities (regular
  survey conducted by EC delegation in Sarajevo)
• Positive political attitude towards the EI
  Process
• Increased interest of universities and local NGOs.

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HVALA THANK YOU

• aturkic_at_dei.gov.ba
• www.dei.gov.ba