EU popularity climbing slowly, poll shows

The percentage of Estonians willing to vote to join the EU has edged up to 38.5 percent from 34.3 percent at the end of last year, according to poll results released on June 27.

If a referendum on joining the EU were to take place next week, 20 percent would vote against accession, according to a poll by the polling agency ES Turu-uuringud.

The poll also showed that the general support of the Esto-nians toward accession was at 55 percent, against 29 percent of those who said they did not support Estonia's membership in the EU.

"This is a natural development toward improvement of matters (in Estonia)," pollster Juhan Kivirahk said, referring to the change of government at the beginning of the year which has boosted the credibility of state institutions.

A total of 42 percent of respondents were still undecided, but Kivirahk said the figure was not surprising as the debate on the pros and cons of accession was only starting in earnest.

Commissioned by the government's EU information office, the poll was conducted in the second week of June among 964 people aged 15 to 74.