International Relations

In April survey 2005 CVVM was concerned also on attitudes of czech citizens to European Union and on public opinions about agreement on EU constitution. Two fifths of citizens share undecided attitudes to membership of Czech Republic in EU. 30% of citizens are satisfied with Czech EU membership , on the other side 18 % of citizens are dissatisfied with it. More than a half of respondents admitted that they are not informed about content of European Constitution at all.

Major part of czech citizens (72%) agree with Czech EU membership, only almost a quarter of respondents (22%) dissagree with it, 6% of citizens could not answer that question.Majot part of czech citizens agree with czech NATO membership, though less people agree with it than in case of czech Eu membership. 62% of respondents agree with czech NATO membership, 28% of respondents disagree with it.

As usual relations of Czech Republic with Slovakia were best evaluated (92% good relations), relations with Poland (91%). A little less of respondents (83%) supposed relations of Czech Republic with Hungary to be good or probably good. People judge relations of Czech Republic with Germany to be good (80%), to be bad (14%), it was similar when judging relations of Czech Republic with Austria (76% good), (17% bad).

Trust in all monitored international institutions outbalances distrust in them.

The most trusted position among all monitored international institutions enjoys OSN. Three fifths of respondents (61%) confide in OSN, while a quarter of respondents (26%) expressed their distrust

in it. More than a half of repondents (56%) trust in European Union, on the other hand 35% distrust in it.

NATO has relatively less of trustees (48%), when two fifths of respondents do not trust in NATO.

In February survey CVVM focused in one of its topics on Benes Decrees.The first question had to represent czech public opinions about validity of Benes Decrees in future. 64% of respondents think that the Benes Decrees should continue to be in force, 7 % stood up for their cancellation, 29% did not answered this question.

Expulsion of Sudet-German is considered to have been just by almost two thirds of respondents (54%), on the other hand a total of 27 % think it unjust.

Retrospectively 27 % of czech citizens agree with attack on Iraq, 64% of respondents disagree with it.

A fifth of respondents think, that military intervention of USA and states of alliance in Iraq helped to limit terorism in the world, on contrary 7 out of 10 respondents do not think so.

More than three fifths of citizens(61%) critically evaluate situation in Iraq, only 4 respondents out of 100 evaluate situation in Iraq well.

In February CVVM interrogated respondents about public opinions on european constitution.

More than a half of respondents agree with united constitution, that would be in force for every single

member of European Union. On the contrary a quarter of citizens is against it.

There is very low awareness of content of European constitution among most of czech citizens.

Six out of ten respondents expressed that they are not informed about European constitution at all, more than a third of citizens know hardly something about it.

Almost half of czech citizens (48%) were ( some at least partly) interested in american presidential elections. One out of ten respondents expressed, that he is deeply interested in it. On the contrary a third was very little interested in presidential elections in the USA. 19% of respondents did not care about it at all.As an often expressed public attitude to result of american presidential elections appeared an indifferent answer „ Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied“ (46%).

Trust prevails over mistrust in the case of V. Klaus, T. Blair, J. Chirac, M. Dzurinda, J. Kerry and A. Kwasniewski. For other personalities in international politics included in the survey, there is prevailing mistrust among the Czech public, most significant being for Fidel Castro, Jasir Arafat, Alexander Lukashenko and also – though on a smaller scale – for the Presidents of the USA and Russia George Bush and Vladimir Putin.

The majority of Czech citizens are sceptical on how they view the possible harmony of future decisions of the European Union with the interests of the Czech Republic and their own interests. Only 30 % of respondents believe that the future decisions of the European Union will comply with the interests of the Czech Republic, while 62 % do not believe so. In relation to their own interests, respondents’ opinions sound a little more sceptical.