In Hypothetical Referendum 82 % of Bulgarians Would Vote for Staying in EU

In a hypothetical referendum on EU membership, every third EU citizen would vote in favour of one's country to leave the Union.

This is revealed by a survey of Gallup International conducted in 14 EU member-states including both founding countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands and new members such as Bulgaria and Romania.

The largest support for EU membership was expressed in Romania, where 85 % of the respondents were in favour of their country continuing to be part of the EU.

Bulgarians demonstrated the second largest support for EU membership, with 82 % of the people participating in the survey being in favour of it.

The UK was the only member-state where the percentage of people in favour of their country leaving the EU was higher, with 54 % of the respondents supporting an exit.

On EU average, 68 % of people participating in the survey were in favour of retaining their country's EU membership, while 32 % were against.

High shares of negative attitudes towards the EU were registered in Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

In the past year, the disappointment from the EU was the greatest in Greece, Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands and Italy.

A weak improvement in attitudes towards the EU was registered in only four countries – Finland, Denmark, Romania and Germany.

Disappointment was most visible among the most educated, but a similar trend was also evident among the poorest and the youngest.

The common currency was seriously challenged as in most of the countries participating in the survey the majority of the population expressed negative attitudes towards the euro.

On EU average, 41 % of the respondents expressed a preference for the euro, 47 % were in favour of retaining their national currency, while 12 % expressed no preference.

In key member-states of the eurozone, such as Germany, France and Spain, the majority of the citizens expressed support for the euro.

Italy and Greece were the members of the eurozone where a larger share of the population expressed preference for their national currency.

As regards the countries outside the eurozone, the largest opposition against the adoption of the common currency was registered in the UK (83 %), followed by Sweden and Denmark.

In Bulgaria, 74 % of the respondents were in favour of retaining the national currency, with only 9 % expressing a preference for adopting the euro, while 17 % had no preference.

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