Summary of Višnja Samardžija’s presentation given during the roundtable Citizen’s Rights and Challenges to Democracy in Europe (English and Croatin version):
Visnja Samardzija claims that there is a lack of understanding of European values in Croatia. In her speech she relied on the results of 2018 autumn research which showed that only 30% of Croatian citizens support the EU, while the European average is 42%. She also considers problematic the fact that the majority of Croatian citizens are focused on socio-economic advantages that the EU offers. She pointed out a paradox in Croatian society: Croatian citizens support specific European policies, but they do not support the EU enlargement policy. Croats have relatively small amount of trust in national institutions (in judiciary 24%, in public administration 27%), while their confidence in the European institutions is on a higher level (judiciary 50%, public administration 51%). She underlined that public focus needs to be on European policies and they should be discussed with young people and the general public.
Višnja Samardžija tvrdi da u Hrvatskoj postoji nerazumijevanje europskih vrijednosti. Poziva se na rezultate jesenskog istraživanja 2018. koji su pokazali da je podrška hrvatskih građana EU bila 30%, dok je europski prosjek 42%. Jednako tako, smatra problematičnim što je većina građana u Hrvatskoj usmjerena na socio-ekonomske prednosti koje EU pruža. Ističe paradoks u hrvatskom društvu: građani Hrvatske podržavaju europske politike, ali ne podržavaju politiku proširenja EU. U nacionalne institucije Hrvati razmjerno malo vjeruju (u pravosuđe 24%, u javnu upravu 27%), dok je povjerenju u europske institucije znato veće (pravosuđe 50%, javna uprava 51%). Zaključno, navodi da u fokusu interesa moraju biti europske politike o kojima se treba diskutirati s mladima i širom javnosti.