Prague, Aug 14 (CTK) – Less than three-fifths of Czechs support the Czech Republic’s EU membership, which is the smallest proportion in the Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary), according to a poll conducted by the CVVM polling institute and released on Monday.
The membership of the EU is supported the strongest, by four-fifths of Poles.
Compared with Poles and Hungarians, Czechs and Slovaks prefer more often national sovereignty to the EU efficiency enhanced at its expense.
In Poland, EU membership is backed by 88 percent, followed by Hungary with 82 percent, Slovakia with 74 percent and the Czech Republic with 56 percent.
The polls only found minimum differences among the people in the V4 countries as to whether their countries have an influence on the decisions in the EU.
Some 25 percent of Poles and Slovaks and 22 percent of Hungarians consider the influence of their country on the EU decisions sufficient, while some two-thirds believe it is insufficient.
In the Czech Republic, it is considered sufficient by 15 percent and insufficient by 76 percent.
The polls also examined whether people in V4 countries prefer the EU ability to act coherently even at the expense of the independence of EU members or the independence at the cost of the EU ability to act.
The former idea is preferred by one-third of Poles and Hungarians, the latter by 43 percent and 55 percent of them, respectively.
When it comes to Slovaks, 22 percent of them support EU efficiency at the cost of national sovereignty and 67 percent prefer independence.
In the Czech Republic, it was 16 percent as against 66 percent.
The poll was conducted on a sample of about 1,000 people over 18 in each of the countries in June and July.
