Bulgarians happy with the EU Membership

More than 60 % of the Bulgarian citizens approve the membership of their country in the European Union. Even a greater number are the Bulgarians who appreciate their country applying for the passport free travel zone and hope the Schengen accession of Bulgaria will happen any time soon. The data was taken from a survey that was organized by the Open Society Institute – Sofia in the last days of June 2014. The people who took part in the survey said that the biggest advantage that came out of the European Union membership of Bulgaria are in increased number of job opportunities, that were followed by the option for free travelling and the access to the European Union funds.

Bulgarians that took part in the survey expressed positive views concerning the access of Bulgaria in Schengen. At the same time 40 % of the people that took part in the poll said that they are against the participation of Bulgaria in various sanctions against other countries. In the same survey 10 % of the people asked required harsher sanctions from the European Union towards Russia for its role in the Ukraine crises. In the same survey it became clear that 28 % people agreed that the gas pipeline South Stream has to be built only after approval from the European Commission, while 22 % said that the pipeline should be built regardless of the EC approval.