Public support for EU membership rises by five percent according to survey

Public support for European Union membership rose in most candidate countrie s this year, but dropped in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Latvia, a regio nal survey showed on Wednesday. In the Czech Republic and Latvia the number voting against membership jumped from last May. In Hungary, 66 percent of re spondents in May 2002 said they would vote for accession in a referendum, co mpared to 54 percent the previous year, the latest poll by GfK Hungaria show ed. In Poland, public support for membership rose to 49 percent from 44 perc ent. In Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey support for joining the wealth ier western bloc was even higher, with Romania leading the list with 78 perc ent. While in May last year 33 percent of Poles asked said they would say no to accession, this figure had dropped to 24 percent by this year. Poland, al ong with nine other mostly ex-communist eastern European countries, expects to become a fully-fledged member of the EU by 2004. The agency conducted the poll in thirteen countries in April and May based on interviews with 1,000 p eople in each country representing a cross-section of the population. (Reute rs)