Ukraine's accession to European Union desirable for 52% of Ukrainians - poll

About 52% of the Ukrainians support the country's accession to the European Union.

These are the results of a research conducted by the sociological group Rating.

«According to the study, 52% of the Ukrainians support Ukraine's accession to the European Union, 34% do not support and another 14% were undecided,» sociologists say.

According to them, during 2012 the number of supporters of European integration has been stable, but somewhat smaller than in 2010-2011. In general, the number of «firm» supporters of European integration is increasing every year: if in 2010-2011 about a quarter of the Ukrainians strongly supported Ukraine's accession to the EU, in 2012 at least a third.

«Youth are the greatest supporters of Ukraine's accession to the EU - nearly two-thirds of the respondents aged 18-29 support the initiative, and only a quarter do not support. Older people are the most pessimistic about the initiative - 38% support it and 43% do not support,» as noted in the materials of the research.

Over the past year, the number of supporters of signing of the free trade area agreement with the EU has not changed either. Yet, though not significant, there was still an increase in the number of those who consider the Customs Union more beneficial to the country (from 34% to 37%).

The biggest supporters of European integration live in the west (77%), slightly less in the centre (64%), north (54%) and east (51%). At the same time, about a half of the respondents in the south and in Donbas area do not support the initiative of accession to the EU.

Adapted from Ukrinform