Europeans what to decide who joins the EU
According to Sputnik.Polls, the majority of Italians (66%), Germans (63%) and the French (63%) want to be involved in decisions regarding the conclusion of EU association agreements with other countries through national referendums. The survey was conducted by the opinion poll companies Populus and Ifop for Sputnik News Agency and Radio. A referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement will take place in the Netherlands on April 6. According to Sputnik.Polls, Italians are most enthusiastic about holding referendums on such deals with other countries. Sixty-six percent of Italians would like to hold a referendum before concluding an association agreement with any new country. The German and French public broadly share the sentiment, with 63% of respondents in each country in favor of putting the issue to a vote. The percentage of those who were against holding a referendum ‒ 23%, 20% and 18% in Germany, France and Italy, respectively ‒ was significantly lower than those who backed such a proposal. The British public is less definitive about the issue. A rather high percentage of those polled there support the idea of a referendum (43%), however, the share of the public that is unsure either way is also high (40% of people answered “I don’t know”). The poll in the United Kingdom was conducted by Populus, a leading UK survey company, between March 4 and 9, 2016, and some 1,085 respondents took part in the poll. The surveys in Germany (1,002 people), Italy (994 people) and France (1,005 people.) were conducted on March 8−10, 2016, by Ifop, the oldest public opinion poll company. Sputnik.Polls Project international public opinion project was inaugurated in January 2015, in partnership with Populus and Ifop France's oldest polling institute. The project organizes regular surveys in the United States and Europe on the most sensitive social and political issues.
