EU Enlargement: public opinion on commonalities between EU and eastern neighbors 2023

As of 2023, 49 percent of European Union citizens disagree with the sentiment that EU countries share something in common with the candidate countries to the east of the EU's current borders. The question of cultural and other commonalities is important for the question of whether these countries will join the EU, as a countries view on the relative similarity of the candidate countries seems to be correlated with whether they then support the future membership of that country in the EU.

Europeans are generally in favor of their eastern neighbors joining the EU, with notable exceptions

There is in fact general suport among EU citizens for the 8 candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzogovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine) to join the European Union, however, this is sharply divided between member states, with citizens of countries such as Austria, France, and Germany not supporting their future membership. France is the country with the second highest share of respondents disagreeing that EU countries have much in common with the candidate countries, with 67 percent of French respondents disagreeing. France has indeed been a long-time skeptic of the EU's enlargement policies, with this only beginning to change following the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022. 

On the other hand, Poland, Sweden, and Ireland are the countries with the most people agreeing that they share things in common with the candidate countries. In the candidate countries themselves, there are some countries with extremely skeptical attitudes towards the EU, notably Serbia, which is considered to be more aligned towards Russia than it is towards the EU powers. Interestingly, only 48 percent of Ukrainians agreed with the question, in spite of a surge in support for membership of the EU in the country in recent years.