Poles are among the biggest supporters of EU expansion but are more moderate in their backing for Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc, a new survey of political attitudes across the continent has shown.
Around 70% of Poles back the idea of welcoming new countries into the European Union, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey.
Some 64% told pollsters they were broadly in favor of expansion, with 6% strongly in favor. By contrast, 16% said they were not very much in favor, with 7% very opposed.
The results make Poland the fifth most supportive of EU expansion – however, Poles find themselves just below the EU average when it comes to support for Ukraine becoming a member.
Around 51% of Poles were in favor of seeing Kyiv join the bloc while 42% were against, compared to the EU average of 52% and 41% respectively. When asked about specific countries, Poles displayed a similar level of support for other candidates for EU membership.
Nordics and Baltics backing Ukraine
This contrasts sharply to the Nordic and Baltic countries, which are fervently supportive of Ukraine’s membership.
As many as 91% of Swedes back the war-torn country’s EU ambitions, along with 81% of Danes and Finns, 72% of Lithuanians, 64% of Latvians and 61% of Estonians.
The Irish and the Spanish (both 67%) are also among the top supporters of Ukrainian membership, along with the Portuguese (64%).
Hungarians and Czechs are the least supportive of admitting Ukraine (30% and 28% respectively), and score highest in terms of opposition to Kyiv’s EU goal (64% for both).
Poles in top five
When it comes to general support for EU enlargement, Scandinavian and Baltic countries again top the list, with the Swedes (79%), the Danes (75%), Lithuanians (74%) and Finns (73%) leading the way and the Poles completing the top five.
The French and Czechs expressed the greatest degree of skepticism towards enlarging the EU. In both countries, the support for admitting new countries to the bloc stood at a lowly 43%, with 53% of the Czechs and 48% of the French who responded to the survey opposed to expansion.
Together with Austria (45% for and 50% against), they are the only three countries in which opponents of enlargement outnumbered supporters. The average for all 27 EU members was 56% in favor and 38% against admitting new members.
When asked about the prospect of specific countries’ joining the EU, Poles tend to be close to or slightly above the EU average. As mentioned, some 51% said they backed Ukrainian membership, while 52% support Moldova joining and 50% are in favor of welcoming both Bosnia and Northern Macedonia.