Some 58% of Romanians, more than the EU average, believe that the European Union will fall apart within the next 20 years, according to a poll ordered by the European Council for External Relations and carried by YouGov agency quoted by The Guardian, local Hotnews.ro reported.

The survey included 14 member states. Only the Slovaks were more pessimistic in regard to the EU’s future: 66% of them expect the EU to disintegrate within the next two decades.

Study data shows a rather grim picture before elections for the European Parliament, as more and more European leaders are worried about populist governments in some European countries.

Despite concerns about the long-term outlook of the European Union, another poll carried by local agency INSCOP at the request of a research body under Romanian Academy reveals that the majority of Romanians believe that the European Union is moving in the right direction.

Apparently in contradiction to the poll carried by YouGov, the results published by INSCOP are largely the result of the context and of little interest among Romanian population of European topics. The context was a broader poll about Romania: the direction it moves toward (76% believe it is wrong) and corruption. In a frame of reference set locally, the European Union seems indeed like moving in the right direction (54.7% of the respondents believe so).

Most Romanians consider the current economic situation of Romania (76%) as well as the situation in the education system (78.3%) or in the healthcare system (83%) as bad or very bad. The pace of migration demonstrate a large part of them trust the economic, healthcare and education systems in Western Europe are better.

editor@romania-insider.com

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