Eighty five percent of Albanians support membership in the European Union, according to the annual survey conducted by the Albanian Institute for International Studies
TIRANA, Nov. 27 – Despite economic difficulties within the European Union and delays in Albania’s EU integration process, Albanians continue their overwhelming support for EU integration. Eighty five percent would vote to join the EU should a hypothetical vote take place this year, according to the latest annual survey conducted by the Albanian Institute for International Studies.
Key reasons cited were expectations of improved quality of life, higher chances of employment and better application of rule of law to fight poverty and corruption as well as hopes of a stronger Albanian democracy. Many Albanians also believe that it is reasonable to expect that the EU should admit Albania by 2020.
The study attracted the attention of many diplomats and analysts who praised Albania’s pro-EU spirit despite the economic crisis, continued delays in the country’s EU bid and growing anti-EU enlargement sentiment in the older and richer parts of the union.
EU power seen as transforming
The survey was conducted for the 10th consecutive year in Albania and aims to gauge people’s perceptions and expectations of the European integration process. The novelties of this year’s survey were questions with an economic character. Specifically, when asked if the Albanian economy would benefit from integration, 73 percent of respondents believed the economy would benefit from these developments, according to Alba Cela, the director of the European Program at AIIS, who presented key findings of the survey.
The results of the study were presented during a special conference, The European Perspective of Albania: Perceptions and Realities 2013, held Nov. 26 at the European Union Information Center in Tirana.
Albert Rakipi, AIIS executive director of AIIS, pointed out the importance of the survey and trends that could be seen in the past decade – continued support for membership being one of them. Guest speakers included Ambassadors Ettore Sequi, head of the European Union Delegation to Albania and Majlind Lazimi, deputy minister of European Integration.
“Albania has demonstrated that they would like to be part of the European Union, but we need to pose a question: Why is the support so high? Why do Albanians consider Albania`s EU integration as being important? The study demonstrates that Albanian people have understood the transformational power of the EU integration process,” said Ambassador Sequi.
The AIIS survey suggests that, if a referendum were to be held on the country’s accession, the overwhelming majority of Albanians would vote for membership. Of 1,200 respondents in 10 major cities in the country, 85 percent would vote in favor of accession in a hypothetical referendum, 6 percent would say No to the EU and 9 percent responded “I don’t know.” Moreover, when asked how important EU integration is, 61 percent of the respondents deemed it very important with another 29 percent considering it important but not a priority and 6 percent not important at all.
Economic benefits seen as key
When asked to identify reasons why they are in favor of integration, it is interesting to note that more than 60 percent of respondents focused largely on economic reasons such as living standards (34 percent), employment opportunities (20 percent), and less poverty (8 percent). The rest was divided between strengthening of rule of law (18 percent), democracy (6 percent) and less corruption (6 percent).
On the other side of the argument, reasons for voting against are almost exclusively attributed to economic reasons, specifically, the economic/financial crisis of the EU (33 percent), prices that will go up (33 percent), and threats to the position of Albanian businesses vis-a-vis European companies (16 percent).
Regardless of the majority of respondents’ awareness that Albania is not yet ready to join the Union (with 52 percent responding no to the question if Albania is ready for accession), 44 percent of them think that the EU should accept Albania despite its preparedness (compared to 42 percent that think the contrary).
One the hot issues at the end of 2013, is the expected candidate status for Albania, after the positive recommendation of the European Commission to grant Albania candidate status after being rejected for the last 2 years. On this issue, the majority of respondents (49 percent) think Albania will finally receive the candidate country status compared to 25 percent who are pessimistic about the prospects.
Asked to assess the benefits of Albania as a candidate country, most of the respondents place importance to additional EU funds and grants the country would be eligible for and, less corruption and more justice in the country.
Seeing 2020
Accession date has always been a matter of great debate and hope for the Albanians and the survey results suggest that the excessively optimists think 2015 will be the accession year for Albania (30 percent), while the majority (38 percent) estimates that Albania will join the EU within 2020, the less optimists say after 2020 (18 percent) and only 3 percent think Albania will never join the EU.
As it has been the case in previous surveys, respondents believe that progress towards the European Union is largely a responsibility of and in the hands of the government (44 percent), parliament (22 percent) and, political parties (15 percent). Only 13 percent think Albanian society plays an important role and even less (5 percent) list the international community. As far as information is concerned, the majority of respondents feel either averagely informed (50 percent) or not informed (28 percent), and the major sources for information are TV (30 percent), internet (17 percent) and newspapers (16 percent).
The event that launched this publication was attended by several stakeholders, the media, civil society representatives, ambassadors of EU member states, civil servants and students and had an extensive coverage by the Albanian and foreign media following articles and news reports on the main findings.
Despite the difficult economic situation, European integration remains a top priority for Albanians. The yearly survey conducted by the Albanian Institute for International Studies suggests that, if a referendum were to be held on the country’s accession, the overwhelming majority of Albanians would vote pro. Of 1200 respondents in 10 major cities in the country, 85 percent would vote in favor of accession in a hypothetical referendum, 6 percent would say No to the EU and 9 percent responded “I don’t know”. Moreover, when asked how important is EU integration 61 percent of the respondents deemed it very important with another 29 percent considering it important but not a priority and 6 percent not important at all.
