International Relations

In October survey CVVM investigated how sympathetic or unsympathetic are some selected countries to the Czech public. In this survey more than 20 countries were selected. The most sympathetic country is Slovakia followed by France and Sweden.

71% of Czechs against 17% think that the U.S. in their foreign policy prioritize their own power and economic interests, and 44% against 40% believe that U.S. do not take into consideration the opinion of the world community.

More than two fifths (42%) of Czech citizens were at least partly interested in American presidential election.

November survey focused on attitudes of Czechs to some representatives of international politics. Respondents were asked to express their confidence or non-confidence to some main figures of international policy and persons involved in recent important events as well as supreme representatives of Central European countries.

In October's survey people have evaluated relations of the Czech Republic with some neighbouring or globally most important countries: Slovakia (91 % good / 7 % bad), Poland (77 % / 18 %), USA (84 % / 8 %), Germany (87 % / 9%), UK (86% / 6 %), France (86 % / 6 %), Hungary (79 % / 9 %), Austria (82 % / 12 %), Japan (68 % / 13 %), Russia (54 % / 36 %), China (47 % / 35 %), Israel (44 % / 31 %), Ukraine (46 % / 39 %) and Iran (20 % / 51 %).

In April 2012 Public Opinion Research Centre investigated if Czechs believe, that decisions of the EU are in behalf of the Czech Republic and ordinary people (like themselves). There was also investigated, whether, according to Czech citizens, values such as democracy, equality, cooperation, tolerance, justice and solidarity are applied in the European Union. Moreover, CVVM probed satisfaction with EU membership and Czechs also talked about measure of their pride in context of being citizens of European Union.

As a part of its April survey, CVVM asked a battery of questions concerning the usefulness or harmfulness of the European integration in the areas of industry, politics, culture, defence and ecology. New battery of questions regarding the usefulness or harmfulness of the unification of regulations in different areas has also been included into the survey. On the whole, Czechs consider the European integration and the unification of regulations to be useful, but there are considerable differences with respect to the particular areas of integration and unification.

In April 2012 CVVM investigated on the membership of the Czech Republic in the European Union. Informants were asked to evaluate positive and negative efects of membership and the impact of membership on chosen areas of public life.

In March 2012 Public Opinion Research Centre focused on opinion to the level of integration of EU a the role of Czech Republic in this process. Both quetions showed differences among the public. About one fifth of inhabitants is for the higher integration of EU although the same number is for the lower integration. 40 % would keep the same level (the rest 20 % did not answer).

Czech population is also rather skeptical to the future of the of the united Europe (only 35 % declared the they trust in the future of this project).

April survey of CVVM asked questions concerning the trust of people in the institutions of the European Union. Besides the trust in the EU as a whole, citizens' trust in the European commission, the European Parliament, the chairman of the European Council (president of the EU) and the representative for the joint foreign policy (ministry of foreign affairs) have been included into the survey. Two questions also referred to the trust of people in the North Atlantic Alliance and the United Nations Organisation. Main finding of the survey is that the trust in all monitored institutions fell down in comparison with last year.