Most Armenians want greater EU role, poll finds
Armenians overwhelmingly feel that the European Union is an important partner of their country, and would like it to play an even greater role in their country, across a range of areas. This is one of the key findings of the recently released Autumn 2012 EU Neighbourhood Barometer for Armenia, conducted in the framework of an EU-funded opinion polling project for the Neighbourhood.
The survey, based on 1,003 interviews conducted in November-December 2012, finds that 86% of Armenians feel the EU is an important partner, with 73% believing the EU and Armenia share sufficient common values to be able to cooperate - much higher than the average for the ENPI East region.
Almost all those asked (85%) wanted a greater EU role in economic development, 87% in trade, 84% in human rights, 74% in democracy, and 78% in regional cooperation - consistently more than the average across the region.
The poll found that 63% of Armenians trusted the EU - slightly less than they trusted the UN (68%), but more than NATO (48%), and more than they trust their own government (52%), Parliament (38%) or political parties (37%).
Eighty-one per cent of respondents felt the EU had good relations with Armenia, against just 13% who felt they were bad.
Armenians questioned in the poll were generally optimistic about their lives - more so than other countries in the region - with 67% satisfied with the life they lead, and the degree of satisfaction rising the younger and more educated respondents were.
However, respondents were less optimistic regarding the direction in which the country was going: just 23% of those asked felt Armenia was going in the right direction, against 61% who thought it was heading the wrong way. Another 72% thought the economic situation was bad, and 31% thought it would get worse in the coming year. Only 38% of those asked were satisfied with the way democracy works in Armenia.
A strong 68% of those asked agreed enough information was available about the EU, while 60% agreed it was easy to understand.
Factsheets summarising the findings of the EU Neighbourhood Barometers were published to coincide with the release last month of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) package of 2012 progress reports of countries covered by the ENP.
The EU Neighbourhood Barometer (opinion polling and media monitoring) is part of the EU-funded Regional Communication Programme, and aims at assessing knowledge and perception of the EU Neighbourhood Policy and its cooperation activities and programmes.
