Unemployment, corruption and the brain-drain are viewed as the biggest problems in southeastern Europe, according to the Balkan Public Barometer 2018.

The 4th annual opinion poll, presented at a conference of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) in Brussels, showed that 70 percent of the population of the Balkans believe that their governments are not doing enough to combat corruption. The poll was ordered by the RCC and conducted by the GfK agency covering 6,000 private individuals and 1,200 companies.  

It also showed that the population of Serbia is more concerned by the state of the economy than the populations of other countries in the region but 58 percent of the people polled said they are not thinking about leaving Serbia. The poll authors said that a majority of the population of Serbia had a positive attitude towards the European Union.  

RCC General Secretary Goran Svilanovic told the conference that the general concern over unemployment has dropped compared to earlier polls. “There is a rise in positive expectations. The business community is much more optimistic. Our analysis showed that people are looking to the past to things like the unresolved issue of Kosovo and old tension between neighbours which is why the population’s view of things to come is more restrained than that of the business community which looks ahead while the population looks back,” he said.  

The poll showed that 56 percent of the regional population is not happy with the current economic situation with 40 percent of business people saying that their businesses have moved forward over the past year.  

A Majority of people, 79 percent, said political parties are the most corrupt followed by the judiciary (75 percent), health care (74 percent) and education (63 percent).  

Forty five percent of the polled said that they need to know the right people to get a job and 20 percent cited discrimination as an obstacle to getting employment. The poll showed that 27 percent of employers prefer to hire men and 12 percent would never hire a Roma.  

According to the poll just 8 percent of business people said they made or are planning to make investments abroad and 41 percent of polled companies said they are not interested in exporting goods or services.