INSCOP survey: Most Romanians believe that Romania should stay in the European Union

Most Romanians believe that Romania should stay in the European Union, according to an opinion poll conducted in January by INSCOP, Agerpres reports.

The survey shows that 71.7% of Romanians believe that Romania should not leave the European Union, while 25.2% would agree with the contrary and 3.1% do not know or do not answer; 75.3% of respondents would not like the EU to fall apart in the coming years, 19% want such a development, and 6.7% do not know or do not answer.

Also, weighing all the implications on economic and social life, on family and personal life, 54.9% of the respondents (as against 47.2% in September 2021, 56.2% in June 2021 and 61.4% March 2021) consider that Romania's accession to the European Union has brought rather advantages, while 40.8% believe the opposite (as against 46.1% in September 2021, 35.1% in June 2021 and 35.2% in March 2021), and 4.3% do not know or do not answer.

According to the survey, 63.2% of the respondents (as against 57.8% in September 2021, 62.9% in June 2021) believe that in the future, Romania would develop better economically if it stays inside the EU, while 29.4% believe that Romania would develop better if it were outside the EU (as against 32.9% in September 2021, and 27% in June 2021), and 7.5% do not know or do not have an answer; 29.4% of Romanians believe that, as a member state, Romania must comply with EU rules, even when its national interests are affected (as against 27.3% in September 2021 and 28% in June 2021), 68.4% believe that Romania must defend its national interests when they disagree with EU rules, even if it risks losing its position as an EU member state (as against 68.5% in September 2021 and 64.8 % in June 2021), and 2.2% do not know or do not answer.

Of the respondents who believe that Romania must defend its national interests when they disagree with EU rules even if it risks losing its EU membership (making up 68.4% of the sample) 72.9% of respondents (about half of the total population) believe that it is in Romania's national interest for the country to remain in the EU, while 24.7% (or 17% of the total population) believe that leaving the EU would not affect the national interests of the country.

The survey also shows that 42.1% of the population consider that Romania is not meeting all the criteria for joining the Schengen area (as against 43.5% in March 2021), 50.8% believe that some EU member states are blocking Romania's accession for economic reasons (as against 50.2% in March 2021), and 7.1% do not know or do not answer the question on the cause of Romania's non-admission to the border-free Schengen Area.

Regarding the intention to emigrate, 77.9% of the respondents say that they prefer to live and work in Romania, while 21.5% say that if they had the opportunity, they would prefer to live and work elsewhere in Europe or the US, with a percentage of non-responses standing at 0.5%. At the same time, 69.9% of Romanians say they prefer to work in a Romanian company in Romania, while 26% say they prefer to work in a foreign company operating in Romania. The percentage of non-responses is 4.1%

According to the survey, 71.8% of the respondents believe that foreign companies sell on the Romanian market products of inferior quality compared to those they sell in other countries, while 24.2% believe the opposite, and 4% do not know or do not know the answer.

Asked if they agree with the unification of Basarabia with Romania, 74.5% of the respondents answered in the affirmative, 21.1% answered in the negative, and 4.3% did not know or did not answer.

Remus Stefureac, chairman of Strategic Thinking Group, says that, overall, overcoming last year's political crisis, forming a broad, stable coalition, and a sense of insecurity generated by Russia have revitalised adherence to Euro-Atlantic values and benchmarks.

"Amidst resolving the political crisis and concluding negotiations with the European Commission over the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), we note that the parameters that reflect the public perception of the advantages of European Union membership have returned to their values of six months ago. This perception is maintained at higher rates especially among young people in the urban area with a secondary or higher education background. The desire to emigrate or to work in a multinational company is obviously stronger on the same segment, reflecting their curiosity, their desire to explore and understand successful socio-economic environments, to achieve a decent income faster and to enjoy more efficient and high-quality infrastructure such as education, administration, transportation and social infrastructure," says Dan Andronache, Vice President of True Story Project (TSP).

The 4th edition of the survey "Public distrust: West vs. East, the rise of the nationalism in the era of disinformation and fake news" was conducted by INSCOP Research in partnership with Verifield. The study was commissioned by the STRATEGIC Thinking think tank (www.strategicthinking.ro) as part of a research project supported by The German Marshall Fund of the United States and financed by the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation via the True Story Project.

The data was collected between January 11-18, 2022, using the surveying technique CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing). The multi-stratified sample of 1,162 respondents is representative for significant socio-demographic categories (gender, age, occupation) for the adult population of Romania, aged 18 and over. The maximum acceptable standard error was ą 2.9% at a 95% confidence level.