The findings from the “Analysis of public opinion on Macedonia’s accession process to the European Union (2014-2016)” by prof. Ivan Damjanovski conducted in cooperation of Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” suggest that the downward trend in the support for EU membership in Macedonia continued in 2016. However, the support for Macedonia’s membership in the EU is still extremely high – 77%, even taking into account the long stagnation in the accession process.
KAS and IDSCS since 2014 began establishing a long-term database of public support for the Macedonian accession process for membership in the EU. The latest public opinion survey conducted in November 2016 within the activities of IDSCS to support the development of democratic processes by promoting policy-based research, development of good governance, rule of law and European integration, suggests that in the last two years there is obvious growth of dissatisfaction with the progress of the countries accession process and significant growth of dissatisfaction with the domestic reform capacity and engagement.
If one excludes the name dispute with Greece as an obstacle in the accession process, the support for EU membership is approaching the threshold of 90%. There is a significant disparity in the support for EU membership among ethnic Macedonians and Albanians when it is conditioned by changing the name of the state, but the gap has narrowed in the last two years.
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Analysis of public opinion on Macedonia’s accession process to the European Union (2014-2016)