27.7.2007

70% OF STUDENTS IN BULGARIA APPROVE EU MEMBERSHIP

About 70 per cent of students in Bulgaria approve of the country having joined the European Union, says an opinion poll on the adoption of democratic values among Bulgaria's younger generation.

The survey also covered memories of the communist era. About the same percentage of students have an ambivalent attitude toward communism, according to Bulgarian news agency BTA.

The study, presented on July 26 by professors Georgi Fotev and Antonii Gulubov, was done in Sofia’s Studentski Grad (“Student’s Town”) and was supported by Germany’s Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

According to 63.9 per cent of the students polled, Bulgaria has different values to those of other EU member states and will need some time to catch up.

Seventeen per cent think that there is a difference, but Bulgaria could quickly overcome it.
Fifteen per cent said that there was no significant difference in value systems, and that Bulgaria had long been a part of Europe.

Of those polled, 44.3 per cent were unsure whether communism afforded more justice to the citizens of Bulgaria than today.

Taking into account the 12 per cent who had no opinion on the issue, more than half of the students polled saw no difference between Bulgaria under communism and society as it is today, Fotev said.

According to 29 per cent, there is greater justice today, while 14.3 per cent held that communism was a more just society.

A third of those polled said some form of communism could make a comeback in the future, while another third thought this impossible.

For 13.3 per cent, communist ideas could return only if the memory of the era faded.

Ten former communist bloc countries have been admitted to the European Union, and a further 17 are candidates.

Source:sofiaecho.com