The results were presented on Tuesday at a round-table debate organised by the Institute for Public Finance and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
The rate of support for accession to the European Union was high in Croatia until 2004, when it declined, similarly to what happened in other candidates for EU membership, the debate heard.
What Croatian citizens are most afraid of is an increase in the prices of goods, services and health care, a possible decline in the production of domestic food products, a higher crime rate, the risk of terrorism, and the sale of real estate and companies to foreigners, said Dragan Bagic, a sociologist from Zagreb's Faculty of Philosophy.
At the same time, Croatians think that EU membership will positively affect the functioning of the rule of law, economic development, efficiency of the state administration, exports, general level of democracy, the country's defence capability, and the reduction of corruption in public institutions.
The solution to raising the public's trust of the EU and reducing euro-scepticism lies in systematic and continued informing, increasing the public's trust in national institutions, and in achieving a sociocultural counterbalance to national exclusivity, said Aleksandar Stulhofer, a professor at Zagreb's Faculty of Philosophy.
Debate moderator Katarina Ott wondered if the current indecisiveness was permanent or just a stage on citizens' road to the final decision. She said the final goal should be to have citizens decide about the EU based on their level of information about it.
Another important question is if Croatian citizens are happy about accession to the EU, said Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovcan, a psychologist. According to a 2003 survey, they were relatively happy, ranking 19th in Europe.