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Moldova may hold referendum on accession to Customs Union

The pollster interviewed 1,500 respondents representing different layers of the population from 72 cities and towns

CHISINAU, March 11 (Itar-Tass) — Moldova’s Social Democratic Party plans to hold a referendum on the country’s accession to the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

On Saturday the party held a meeting of the action group that brought together around 1,000 people from Moldova’s different regions who plan to start a campaign for collecting 200,000 signatures required for organizing the referendum.

“Moldova’s participation in the Customs Union will help it to get less costly energy resources and a bigger market for export of our goods and will bring the economic growth to our country,” the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Viktor Shelin, said. “We plan to hold the referendum already on November 18 for the republic to be able to join the Customs Union as of January 1.”

Earlier the leaders of other parliamentary parties – ex-president and chairman of the Communist Party, Vladimir Voronin, and the head of the Socialists, Igor Dodon - also stressed the need for Moldova’s integration to the Eurasian Union.

According to Moldova’s recent public opinion polls, the number of people who support their country’s accession to the Eurasian Union is growing. Along with this the number of those who express skepticism towards Moldova’s accession to the European Union and NATO is on the rise.

Thus, a survey conducted by the Moldovan Association of Sociologists and Demographers last January, around 40 percent of the country’s population supported Moldova’s accession to the Eurasian Union, while another 44 percent of those polled spoke for Chisinau’s accession to the EU.

Social scientists noted that the number of those who supported the government’s course for European integration declined by 17 percent as against last year. If the referendum takes place, only 17 percent of respondents would vote for Moldova’s accession to NATO and another 47 percent would vote against.

The pollster interviewed 1,500 respondents representing different layers of the population from 72 cities and towns. A statistical error did not exceed 2 percent.

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