RCC presents Balkan Barometer 2022 / The most pessimistic citizens that the countries of the Western Balkans will join the EU

In her opening remarks, the Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, Majlinda Bregu, stressed that since the presentation of these data coincided with the day after the EU Summit for the Balkans, she wanted to focus first on the developments of that Summit. . “I hoped to complete my speech today with encouraging messages that would be conveyed by the Summit, but unfortunately, I have to say that for the countries of the Western Balkans, yesterday the dissatisfaction increased to another level of disappointment.

There were no opening of negotiations for the membership of Albania and Northern Macedonia and for me, for some other colleagues in this room, who have spent 20 years of their lives, practically all their professional life working for the European perspective of the Western Balkans but also for other partners from the European Commission working day by day for this process or member states that have also been strong supporters of EU enlargement to the Western Balkans, yesterday was a difficult day, full of frustration not only for Albania and Northern Macedonia, but also for Kosovo, as the Summit conclusions did not mention the issue of visa liberalization with Kosovo at all. “

Bregu further said that for Ukraine and Moldova yesterday was marked “I feel really good that at some point the decision to give these two countries candidate status was granted. It was given at a time when today we will talk about the feelings / perceptions of citizens. When it comes to the data of an observation, a barometer the first thing you try to measure are the feelings, the perceptions of the citizens. Our barometers have been measuring these perceptions for years, which if measured today, I dare say would be much different due to the disappointment that came from “NO” for the EU enlargement of our region. Therefore, I must emphasize that we have in mind that this edition of Balkan Barometer & Securimeter, was conducted before the war in Ukraine and of course before the conclusions of the Summit “, said Bregu adding at the end that the RCC will try to repeat some of the questions especially those related to perceptions of security challenges in the fall, to see how perceptions have changed.

Regarding the data from the Barometer, Bregu stressed that the results that come out are sometimes surprising, sometimes serve as an alarm, while other times confirm that the efforts are not in vain as citizens and businesses feel the benefits of the work done by RCC

76% of citizens of the Western Balkans see regional cooperation as an excellent approach; 60% support EU membership, a majority still though last year it was 62%; 74% admit that misinformation is a security threat to their economies, while 1 in 3, again and again, see corruption as a major threat to their lives; 67% think of living and working abroad. Only 21% trust political parties, while 75% do not.

66% of people see pollution in their place of residence as problematic and last but not least, 43% of businesses in the Western Balkans say that free roaming in our region has had a positive impact on their business activity .

“Let me close with this conclusion: There can be no EU perspective (which citizens support at the level of 60%) without regional cooperation supported by 76% of citizens. But there is less chance to convince the tough lines in the EU that we will not cause problems for the EU if corruption and organized crime are still a concern for more than 80% of citizens. It will be difficult to improve the region and turn it into a major investment hub if 67% of young people would like to leave the country. Social media connects people, but misinformation is becoming a threat to national security worldwide. The same goes for air pollution. People living in the cities of the Western Balkans lose up to 1.3 years of their lives from air pollution, as the population is exposed to some of the highest concentrations of air pollution in Europe. And finally: where there is will there is also way. This is the lesson learned from “Roam Like at Home” that the region started and successfully implemented “concluded Bregu.

Balkan Barometer is authorized by RCC and funded by the European Union. It has been running every year since 2014 by an independent agency among more than 6,000 citizens and 1,200 companies across the region. The Balkan Barometer is firmly established as a reliable source of regional data widely used and referenced by the media, business, civil society and decision-makers.

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