The European Balkans Fund said on Thursday that 64.1 percent of Serbians support the country’s membership in the European Union.

The poll, conducted by Ipsos Strategic Marketing, showed the 27.3 percent of Serbians do not support EU membership while 8.6 percent said they have no opinion.  

Just over a fifth (21.8 percent) of polled Serbians said that the country would become an EU member state in the next five years while 28.4 percent think that will take 10 years and 9.6 percent 20 years.

Almost a third (32.7 percent) said that Serbia will never join the EU.   Asked about progress on the path to the EU, 46 percent said they are satisfied and 45 said they are not. About a third (33.1 percent) said the EU is playing a negative role in the democratization process while 30.7 percent said its role is positive.

Almost half (43.1 percent) of polled Serbians said they believe the authorities can be replaced at elections, 32.4 percent said they can’t and 21.1 percent said maybe.

Pressure on voters is believed to be a significant obstacle to fair elections in the opinion of 27.2 percent of the polled while 15.1 percent said the problem is the privileged media approach to the ruling party. A total of 25.8 percent said they support a boycott against irregular elections.