Slightly more than one-fifth of Croatians do not want to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which puts Croatia among the top few EU countries in that regard, shows a Eurobarometer survey released by the European Commission this past Friday.

When asked when they would get vaccinated if the authorities had approved a COVID-19 vaccine and if it was available, 22% of those polled in Croatia said ‘never’.

This type of answer was the most frequent in Cyprus (26%), Latvia (23%), and Croatia, Bulgaria and France (22%).

Twenty percent (20%) of Croatian respondents said they would get vaccinated as soon as possible or that they had already been vaccinated, 27% said they would get inoculated this year while 30% said they would do it later.

The share of sceptical respondents was the lowest in Denmark (2%), followed by Ireland, Sweden and Malta (4%), and Portugal (5%).

The survey was conducted in February and March and covered all 27 member states.

More than half of Croatians, 55%, are satisfied with measures taken by the EU to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The least satisfied were respondents in Greece (31% said they were satisfied with the EU’s measures), followed by those in France (32%) and Germany (33%).

Danes were the most satisfied with the EU’s measures (68%), followed by Lithuanians (67%), and the Portuguese (66%).

Support for EMU in Croatia 48%

The European Monetary and Economic Union (EMU) with the euro as the single currency is supported by 48% of Croatians, 45% are against, and 7% said they did not know, shows the survey.

The EMU is supported the most in Portugal (95%), Slovenia (94%) and Ireland (91%). It is the least supported in Sweden (25%), Denmark (32%), Poland (34%), and the Czech Republic and Bulgaria (40%).

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Croatians consider the economic situation in their country bad while 13% consider it good.

More dissatisfied than Croatians are Greeks and the Portuguese, of whom 90% said that the economic situation in their respective countries was bad, followed by Spaniards (91%) and Italians (93%).

The most satisfied respondents were those in Luxembourg, where 86% of those polled described the economic situation in their country as good, followed by respondents in Sweden (81%) and Denmark (71%).

EU citizens expect recovery from pandemic in 2023 or later

Only 6% of Croatians believe the national economy will recover from the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic this year, 20% think that recovery will happen in 2022, and 57% in 2023 or later.

Most of those polled in all member countries, 44-82%, believe economic recovery will happen in 2023 or later. Between 10 and 31% expect recovery next year.

Most Croatians consider the Next Generation EU recovery instrument, worth €750 billion, an effective response to the economic consequences of the crisis.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Croatians consider the instrument very effective or quite effective. That view is held by 83% of Maltese respondents, while on the other end are Finns (42%), the French (45%) and Latvians (47%).

Slightly more than half of Croatians, 51%, trust the EU while 44% do not.

Trust in the EU is the highest in Portugal (78%), Ireland (74%) and Lithuania (70%).