Most Croatians are against the euro, their greatest concerns are immigration and terrorism at EU level and unemployment and the economic situation at home, and the number of Croatians who have a positive image of the EU is on the rise, the autumn Eurobarometer survey shows.
The survey was conducted from 8 to 22 November in the 28 member states, five membership candidate countries and the Turkish community in Cyprus.
It revealed that 56% of respondents in Croatia are against the European single currency, the euro, 40% support it, while 4% said they don’t know. Support for the euro among Croatians fell by six percentage points from the spring survey.
The euro enjoys the greatest support in Slovenia (86%), Luxembourg and Estonia (both 85%), Ireland and Belgium (both 84%). The lowest support was recorded in the Czech Republic (21%), the United Kingdom (28%), Sweden (29%) and Denmark (30%).
Croatians said their greatest concerns at national level are unemployment (43%), the economic situation (28%) and rising prices and costs of living (27%). At EU level, unemployment was mentioned as the greatest concern by 23% of those polled, followed by rising prices and immigration.
Croatians are among the most pessimistic EU nations when it comes to the state of the national economy, as 83% of them consider it bad and only 16% good. These, however, are better results than those from the April survey when only 11% of Croatian respondents described the state of the national economy as good.
Only Greeks are more pessimistic than Croatians, as 6% of them see the state of their national economy as good and 94% as bad. Somewhat less pessimistic than Greeks and Croatians are Spaniards, Bulgarians, Italians, Romanians and the French.
On the other end of the spectrum, 95% of respondents in Malta said the national economy is in a good state, ahead of respondents in Luxembourg and the Netherlands (both 91%), Denmark, Germany and Sweden (all 88%).
Asked to identify the most important issue currently faced by the EU, 48% of Croatians mentioned immigration, 32% terrorism and 19% the state of public finances in member states.
Overall, respondents in all 28 member states are mostly concerned about immigration (40%) and terrorism (20%).
Most Croatians (65%) consider the economic situation in the EU good, 26% think it is bad, and 9% don’t know. In this regard, the highest scores were recorded in Lithuania (73%), Austria and Poland (both 70%), and Ireland (67%), while the lowest were registered in France (26%), Spain (36%), Italy and the United Kingdom (both 37%).
A total of 58% of Croatians believe that the impact of the economic crisis on the job market has already reached its peak and that the situation will recover, while 38% think that the worst is still to come. In this regard, the most optimistic are the Irish (76%), Danes and the Dutch (both 70%), and Hungarians (69%), while the greatest pessimists are the French (67%), followed by Estonians, Lithuanians, Britons and Swedes.
Some 39% of Croatians have a positive image of the EU, five percentage points more than in spring this year; 42% have a neutral image, five percentage points less than in spring, and 18% have a negative image.
For the first time a majority of Europeans think their voice counts in the EU (49%), an increase of four percentage point from spring. On the other hand, 47% disagree with this statement, down from the spring Eurobarometer. 59% of Croatians believe their voice counts in the EU.
EU enlargement policy continues to be unpopular. 43% of respondents in the EU are in favour of further enlargement, 45% are against, while 12% don’t know. Scores by member states on this question were not given.
