You're reading: Poll: Ukrainians prefer Customs Union accession rather than association with EU

Almost a half of Ukrainians (46%) support the country's accession to the Customs Union, and 62% think that a national referendum should be called to decide on the issue.

According to a poll conducted by the Social Monitoring Center, 46% of the country’s population think that Ukraine should become a full member of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

At the same time, 35% of respondents think that Ukraine should sign agreements on a free trade area and political association with the European Union with further accession to the EU, while 19% have not decided on their opinion on the issue.

The majority of the respondents that have formed their opinion on the issue (57%) support joining to the Customs Union, and 43% said that Ukraine should sign the Association Agreement and create a free trade area with the EU.

The majority of respondents (62%) support the idea of calling a referendum to decide on Ukraine’s accession to the Customs Union, and only 24% of Ukrainians are ready to commit this task to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. Some 15% of respondents could not answer the question.

The poll was conducted on December 5-15, 2012 in 24 regions of Ukraine, Crimea, and Kyiv. A total of 2003 people were polled.