Prague, May 2 (CTK) – A mere one quarter of Czechs are satisfied with their country’s EU membership, which is one of the lowest ratings since the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004, but the opinion that it should retain membership still prevails, according a CVVM poll released on Monday.
Since 2005, when CVVM started to conduct the polls, the share of the satisfied has always oscillated between one quarter and one third of the polled.
It only reached 40 percent, the highest level in the 12 years, in 2008 and 2009.
The satisfaction was at 25 percent in 2012, too, and in 2013, it reached 26 percent.
Compared to last year, satisfaction with EU membership dropped by 7 percentage points.
CVVM also announced last week that the Czechs’ trust in the EU dropped to a record low level year-on-year, or a mere one third of people.
The drop in both cases is probably due to the migrant crisis. A majority of Czechs assess the EU’s tackling the crisis negatively.
Despite the decline in satisfaction with EU membership and trust in the EU, 51 percent of Czechs believe that their country should remain an EU member. The opposite view is held by 39 percent of people.
Like in the past years, Czechs most often criticise mounting bureaucracy and the strongly limiting character of the EU rules.
On the other hand, people praise the better possibilities of studies and employment in the EU and EU subsidies.
Satisfaction with EU membership is most often expressed by young people, university graduates and students, businesspeople and employees. Pensioners are dissatisfied more often.
Supporters of the senior government Social Democratic Party (CSSD) and the rightist opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) are more often satisfied with the EU membership while Communist (KSCM) voters are strongly dissatisfied.
The poll was conducted on 1063 people older than 15 years of age on April 4-11.
