LONDON – Public support for the accession of Ukraine to the EU has doubled since 2018 with almost half of citizens in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain saying that Ukraine should join the Union. The highest support is seen in Spain, where 60% of the citizens are in favor of Ukraine joining the EU and only 14% are opposed.
YouGov, an international research data and analytics group has conducted the newest research in March about the support towards Ukraine’s accession to the EU of citizens in four of the largest EU countries. The comparison with the Western Balkans shows some interesting takeaways.
Ukraine, which hasn’t even entered the formal accession process tracks more support than all of the countries in the Western Balkans. The average support of the Western Balkans countries is 15% lower than the average support for Ukraine.
Support for Kosovo joining the EU is lowest among all other Western Balkans countries and remains below 30% and the highest support is for Montenegro albeit it is just 36%. Bosnia and North Macedonia enjoy similar support at around 35% and Albanian accession to the EU has the support of every third citizen. Serbia has the second-lowest support with only 31% of those in favor of it joining the EU.