Three-quarters of Ukrainians support reforms for joining European Union

This is evidenced by the results of the poll "Wartime Diplomacy. What do Ukrainians think about Ukraine's movement towards EU and NATO membership during the war", conducted by Info Sapiens on behalf of the New Europe Center, Ukrinform reports.

"Now that Ukraine received European prospects and candidate status, Ukrainians do not want to stop at what they have achieved – 73% of citizens believe that it is correct that the EU put forward requirements for Ukraine to implement reforms without which the start of negotiations on joining the EU cannot take place. And while some respondents note that the EU should be more lenient towards Ukraine in the issue of reforms amid the war, 47% confidently say that reforms are in the interests of Ukraine itself and the EU should demand their implementation as soon as possible," the research authors note.

In particular, according to the respondents, anti-corruption reform is important. More than half of the population (60.1%) support the EU’s pressure on Ukraine to fight corruption. And only 19.5% note that this is currently not the main problem in Ukraine.

For the most part, Ukrainians realize that the quality of the implementation of reforms is more important than its speed: 59% of citizens note that to bring Ukrainian legislation into line with EU law, the Ukrainian authorities need to prepare all the necessary laws appropriately, hold all the needed discussions, even it will take a long time. Only a third of the population — 36% — supports the opinion that laws should be adopted as soon as possible, even if they have to be revised later.

As the poll showed, the Ukrainians are optimistic about the country's further progress towards EU membership despite the war — 62% of respondents believe that Ukraine will be able to start negotiations on joining the EU even before the end of the war. Meanwhile, 20% of respondents do not believe in this possibility.

The majority of citizens are sure that Ukraine will become EU member in the short- or medium-term perspective: 55% of Ukrainians believe that this will happen in the next 1-5 years. 27% prefer not to name specific timelines, choosing the option "as soon as the war ends." Only 6% of citizens believe that Ukraine will join the EU in the next 10 years.

The poll was conducted from December 16 to 25, 2022 using the method of computer-assisted telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers. The sample is representative of the adult population of Ukraine (aged 18 and older). The structure of the sample corresponds to the structure of the population according to such parameters as gender, age, size of the settlement and the region of the pre-war place of residence according to the data of the State Statistics Service as of January 1, 2022. The poll was not conducted in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, as well as in other territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia, where Ukrainian operators do not provide mobile telephone services. Also, the survey does not sufficiently cover Ukrainians who have gone abroad. The maximum possible error does not exceed 3.1%.

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