Euractiv | Almost two-thirds of Czechs do not want Ukraine in the EU, poll shows

Czechia is the largest recipient of Ukrainian refugees per capita. Although the country has handled this challenge overall quite well, there has remained space for speculation and negative messaging, which unfortunately has not been balanced by communication about how the refugees are actually doing (including open communication about the difficulties as well).

Specifically regarding EU enlargement, the Czech (and generally European) public is mostly unaware that countries applying for membership must first meet a set of very demanding conditions. People also do not understand the technical nature and language of the integration process – candidate status, the opening of accession negotiations, the opening and closing of negotiation chapters versus actual membership, and how decisions on these matters are made (i.e., the unanimity of all member states at each step of the accession process).

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