The majority of Slovenians believe that their country gained by entering the EU, the results of the spring Eurobarometer Poll 2005 showed on Friday.
The biggest benefit of the membership would be the future euro changeover, favoured by 62% of those polled. 79% of Slovenians support further EU expansion, the highest share among all EU member states.
Compared to the previous Eurobarometer poll, conducted in the autumn of 2004, the number of Slovenians favouring the EU has decreased slightly.
Nevertheless, Slovenia remains one of the most pro-European countries in many key areas, such as EU expansion, strengthening of political integration, development of common foreign policy (84% in favour) and common defense policies (90% in favour) and support for the monetary union.
A drop of 3% from the autumn of 2004 poll, 49% of Slovenians think that being a member of the EU is a good thing, while those who think that joining was a bad idea increased by 4% to a total of 9%.
Despite this drop, Slovenians are in general satisfied with their personal life (40% said that their quality of life (QOL) improved in the last year and are optimistic for what the future will bring (31% say their QOL will improve in the next year and 60% in the next five years).
The primary task of the EU should be fighting unemployment (65%), preventing poverty and social exclusion (64%) and protecting the environment (30%), according to the results.
The EU should be more politically integrated, 75% of those polled said, at the same time disaproving of any additional costs that integration might bring (62% against costs increase).
EU expansion got an overwhelming thumbs-up by Slovenians. They would love to see Switzerland in the EU (92%), trailed marginally by Norway (91%) and Iceland (87%). A smaller number would welcome Croatia (64%) and Turkey (53%) to the Union.
The support for EU constitutional treaty is also on a high 76%, while 11% of respondents have not heard of the existence of such document.
The approval rating of the government of PM Janez Jansa is at a high 52%, but it has dropped 4 percentage points compared to June. About 32% disapprove of the government's policy.
The Eurobarometer survey was conducted by the European Commission between 13 May and 10 June 2005 on a representative sample of 1,045 Slovenian citizens over 15 years of age. Further information is available at www.evropska-unija.si.
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