AS MUCH as 70 percent of Slovaks think that Slovakia benefits from its membership in the European Union. This is 12 percentage points above the EU average. These findings stem from Eurobarometer, the survey of public opinion in 27 EU member states, three candidate countries, and the Turkish Cypriot Community in the area not controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus conducted between September and November 2007.
More than half of Slovaks (58 percent) consider Slovakia's membership in the EU "a good thing". Thus in the long run Slovakia belongs amongst countries with the highest ratio of citizens, who are convinced that Slovakia benefits from EU membership. Slovaks are looking at 2008 more optimistically than most Europeans. Almost 30 percent (29 percent) of the Slovak respondents believe that the economic situation in their country will improve during the year. According to the Eurobarometer results, citizens of only three other EU countries have higher expectations. Thirty-two percent of Slovaks expect that employment will improve in Slovakia compared with the EU average of only 26 percent.
Among the concerns of 2008, Slovaks rank rising prices, unemployment and health care as the most important, which is the same as the majority of EU citizens.
