Estonian citizens favor NATO over EU - survey

Aug 10, 2000

At the end of June, 61 percent of all respondents favored Estonia's entry into NATO, whereas those saying they wanted the country to join EU made up only 40 percent, Emor researcher Mari-Liis Liiv told BNS.

Respondents who were against NATO membership made up 26 percent and those against EU made up 35 percent.

Compared with the beginning of January, support for EU membership had declined by 7 percent, whereas support for NATO was up by 6 percent. Opposition to NATO membership for Estonia had declined by 4 percent and the share of Europessimists had risen also by 4 percent.

"Compared with NATO, the European Union is workaday, and it also has a bigger impact on people's day-to-day life," Liiv said. "The European Union intrudes in people's lives in the form of food prices, labor market and many other fields," she said,

The monthly survey by Emor shows that most people don't know what changes membership in the European Union would bring.

"Ignorance and relatively small interest and being badly informed about the pros and cons of the European Union gives rise to both grounded and ungrounded expectations and fears in people, which maybe is the reason for Estonian residents' Euroskepticism," the researcher said.

The survey also reveals that ethnic Estonians incline more towards NATO, while non-Estonians are more in favor of membership in EU.

NATO membership for Estonia was favored by 68 percent of ethnic Estonians and 23 percent of respondents of a different ethnic background. Supporters of EU membership made up 58 percent among non-ethnic Estonians and 43 percent among ethnic Estonian respondents.

Liiv said that while many ethnic Estonians saw NATO as a guarantor of security and wanted the country to be a member, they also tended to perceive EU as a threat to their national identity, a kind of threat that the Russian speakers here probably don't share as they see EU rather as a defender of their rights.

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