Irish support EU membership but lukewarm on enlargement

Irish people have one of the highest levels of support for European Union membership but less than half favour future enlargement for the bloc, a survey published today shows.

The European Commission opinion poll shows that more than in any other country, Irish people (86 per cent) believe the country has benefited from membership, compared to a European average of 59 per cent.

Only 43 per cent of British people believed the United Kingdom has benefited from EU membership, while in Hungary only 40 per cent thought so.

In the Netherlands 77 per cent of those surveyed said membership was "a good thing", followed by Ireland where 76 per cent shared the same opinion. Those surveyed in Luxembourg, Spain and Belgium were also positive with more than 70 per cent in those countries saying membership was a good thing.

A majority of 57 per cent of EU citizens think that their country's membership of the European Union is a good thing, the highest level of support for membership since 1994. In Autumn of that year, support amongst the then twelve Member States stood at 58 per cent.

However, membership of the Union was seen as a good thing by only 39 per cent of British people, compared to bottom-of-the-list Austria where only 36 per cent thought EU membership was good.

Despite some of the highest approval ratings for the European Union, the Irish are cautious about its future direction. Less than half (42 per cent) of Irish people are in favour of future enlargement of the EU, a reduction of six percentage points since a survey was done last year.

Support for enlargement is at its highest in Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Romania and Spain. Support for enlargement is at its lowest at the heart of the EU in Luxembourg, where only 25 per cent favoured it. On average 49 per cent of EU citizens support enlargement, the survey shows.

A total of 62 per cent of those surveyed in Ireland were in favour of an EU constitution, compared to 82 per cent in Belgium and 43 per cent in the UK where it is least popular.

Where national issues are concerned, Ireland has the fifth highest level of confidence in the economy. Eighty nine per cent of Irish people think that the economy here is in a good state - this compares to just nine per cent of Hungarians.

Unemployment tops the list of concerns of most European citizens but in Ireland, it is the healthcare system and crime which are seen as the biggest problems facing the country at the moment.