About half of all Ukrainians and about three-fourths of those who would participate in a referendum regarding Ukraine’s accession to the European Union support such a step in February, according to the results of an opinion poll conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
According to the findings of the sociological survey made public on Feb. 27, if a referendum on whether Ukraine should join the EU or not were held now, 51 percent of respondents said that they would vote for the accession, 23 percent would vote against that, and 26 percent are undecided or would not take part in the voting.
“So, those who are undecided of how they would vote, as a rule, would not attend a referendum regarding the accession to the EU, about 74 percent of all those who are entitled to vote and live in the areas controlled by the Ukrainian authorities would take part in the voting, and this is how votes would be cast (in fact, these figures are mostly close to possible returns of a referendum if it were held in February): 70 percent would vote for joining the EU, while 30 percent would vote against,” the statement reads.
As compared to the results of the opinion poll conducted in September 2017 shortly after taking the decision on the visa-free travel between Ukraine and the EU and when the highest number of Ukrainians were ready to vote for Ukraine’s joining the EU (57 percent of Ukrainians would vote for this decision, 17 percent would vote against it), the percentage of those who want to vote for this move in case of a referendum has slightly gone down to the previous level, which has been observed before the introduction of the visa-free travel (49 percent were ready to join the EU in February 2017, 51 percent now, the difference is within the margin of error).
Meanwhile, the attitude to Ukraine’s entry to the EU is still quite different in various regions. The percentage of those who back the accession to the EU is much higher than the percentage of those who oppose this move in western and central regions, their numbers are almost equal in southern regions, and there are more those who object to joining the EU than those who support that possible decision in eastern regions.
KIIS held its own nationwide opinion poll on Feb. 8-20. A total of 2,042 respondents living in 110 populated localities in all Ukrainian regions, except for Crimea, were polled via a personal interview method using a four-level stochastic sample representative for the population of Ukraine aged over 18. The opinion poll was carried out in Luhansk and Donetsk regions only in the areas controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.
