Austrians’ opposition to Ukraine’s membership in the European Union

– International News – Tasnim News Agency According to the Austrian newspaper “Kourier”, the results of a survey show that the majority of Austrians are against Ukraine joining the European Union.

According to this survey, the majority of Austrians believe that if Ukraine joins the European Union, it will have a negative impact on European security.

Based on this, 52% of Austrians They believe that Ukraine should not join the European Union.

The think tank European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) announced in a press release on Tuesday that only 28% of Austrians agree with this issue.

In comparison, Europeans were said to be generally open to EU expansion and Ukraine’s membership.

However, there are concerns that Ukraine’s accession to the EU could pose economic and security risks to society and countries. create its member, which is more than the acceptance of the candidate countries of the Western Balkans. According to this survey, 45% of the people surveyed by ECFR in 6 EU countries believe that Ukraine’s accession to the EU will have “negative effects” on EU security, while 25% expect “positive effects”. According to those surveyed, the annexation of the Western Balkan countries poses relatively fewer risks.

In Austria, these concerns are even more pronounced: 62 percent of the people in the country believe that the annexation of Ukraine would have “negative effects” on the security of the union ( compared to 17% who expect positive effects), and 50% share this assessment about the Western Balkan countries.

There are also differences regarding the timing of the expansion. According to this survey, the dominant opinion in Austria, Denmark, Germany and France is that the EU should not accept any new member states at the moment.

On the contrary, there is a clear desire to expand the EU in Romania and There is Poland. The population of Austria shows the clearest opinion in this regard: according to the ECFR report, the vast majority of people in this country (53%) are in favor of not accepting new members of the European Union. Only 28% in this country are in favor of development at this point in time.

Participants in this survey consider the possible accession of Turkey to the European Union even more critical than the accession of Ukraine to the European Union. 51% of people surveyed in 6 countries reject Turkey’s EU membership.

According to this international survey conducted by ECFR, YouGov and Datapraxis in six EU member countries, in Austria, rejection Turkey’s membership reached 72% and the approval rate dropped to 12%.

Europeans also consider Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia as member states. The future of the European Union is not optimistic. Looking at the six countries surveyed as a whole, less than 30 percent of respondents support the admission of one of the aforementioned countries to the EU.

Support for the accession of Kosovo is the lowest (20 percent). In Austria, 41% and 36% respectively believe that the Republic of Moldova and Montenegro should not be allowed to join.

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