Most Romanians (80%) want to become European Union citizens. But does the Union want us? The answer to this question, although hardly encouraging, is provided by the survey of one of the world's leading market research companies, GfK, as commissioned by The Wall Street Journal Europe.
Only 41% of the EU citizens would have Romania join the EU at the moment, the GfK poll shows.
Romania is, therefore, included in the "unwanted" category side by side with Turkey and Russia, which only 38% of the Europeans feel are worthy of becoming Union members.
The countries most of the EU citizens would like as new members are, as expected, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, (two thirds of the respondents are in favour), followed by the Baltic States (49% pros). Most unwanted in the event of accession are the Balkan States (Albania, Macedonia, Yugoslavia and Bosnia) and the North-African countries (Morocco and Tunisia), as only 32% would welcome them. The most reluctant to EU openness to newcomers are the Germans.
More than half of the Germans (60%) will have only Hungary as an EU member, while almost one in two would also have the Czech Republic and Poland.
When it comes to Romanians, things take a different turn, though.
To Germans, the Turks are somewhat more welcome to join the EU than the Romanians, as 30% of the respondents in this country agree to have Turkey join the EU, while 22% agree to the same thing for Romania.
Most friendly towards Romanians joining the European Union are the Danes (65%) and the Italians (60%).
As for the countries that have not commenced accession negotiations yet, Russia welcomes Romania's EU integration the least, as only 16% of Putin's subjects agree to this prospect.
The "Future of Europe" survey was conducted on 18,822 people in 17 countries. This survey comprises interviews with people from the United States, Russia and Portugal for the first time.
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