New poll suggests candidate euro-scepticism on increase

A new poll suggests "euro-scepticism" has grown in the past year in the Czech Republic and fellow European Union candidate countries Poland and Hungary. Enthusiasm for EU membership appears strongest in Hungary and weakest in the Czech Republic, according to the poll released on Wednesday by the Central European Opinion Research Group. Forty-five percent of Czechs said they wanted their country to join the EU, down from 49 per cent last year. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are the leading candidates for the next round of EU enlargement, which could take place as early as 2003.