Youth aspirtion survey in Republic of Macedonia reveals a perception of European integration as a process that, to a great extent, will solve the basic living problems of the young people in Macedonia. In contrast to the situation in the European Union, where the youth view EU membership as freedom to travel, study and work, 41 in Macedonia's case it seems that the youth view European integration as a means of achieving stability and improving living conditions. In addition, 57% of the young population trust in the European Union itself(21.2% of them have a great trust, and 35.8% have a partial trust). However, that 21.2% of the young people do not have any trust in the EU is worrisome. It demonstrates a certain lack of balance between the high positive regard for Macedonia's accession process and the relatively weaker support for the European Union itself. This indicates a need for greater education among the young people about the role of the EU in Macedonia, and, above all, the values and ideas which it represents. Perceptions of the Process of Approaching NATO NATO membership is one of Macedonia's most important foreign policy priorities, and a majority of the young population agrees. The YAS research shows strong support for Macedonia's potential NATO membership, and on a hypothetical referendum 70% of the youth would vote in favour of joining NATO(with 9% voting against it). Of note is that the parallel processes of EU and NATO integration receive almost the same level of support. All previous surveys of the general population had shown a greater support for joining the EU. This indicates a slight decrease among the young population of support for EU accession 42 , but also a relatively stronger support for NATO membership. Such a conclusion becomes significant if we bear in mind the considerably lower media coverage of the latter process. An essential correlation with the time frame for gaining membership should be emphasized here, whereas the probability for earlier membership to NATO is greater and more realistic. On the other hand, stronger support among ethnic Albanians is evident in this area as well, as 80% of the Albanians would vote for accession to NATO as opposed to 64.8% of the Macedonians. This assertion is more evident if we look at the percentage of the opponents to this process. 10.7% of the Macedonians would vote against joining NATO, as opposed to the extremely low 3% of the Albanians. However, opinions are more dispersed as to whether NATO membership would serve as a guarantee for the personal safety of the respondents. Although 62% of the respondents consider that NATO membership will increase their safety in some way, nearly 10% are strongly convinced of it; 24% share this opinion, but with a weaker intensity; while 29% consider that NATO will increase the safety to some degree. On the other hand, 28.5% don't believe that NATO membership will affect their personal safety. These figures reveal a perception of stability in the regional and domestic context. What also supports this assertion is that 54% of the respondents who consider that NATO membership won't increase their personal security and 73% of the respondents who consider that NATO membership will increase their safety to a certain degree both still would vote in favour of NATO membership for Macedonia, which means that NATO membership should not be exclusively associated with the desire for personal safety. At the same time, the relatively strong trust in Macedonia's army and police forces also contributes to this dispersion of views. On the other hand, similarly to the previous issue, there are differences between the two largest ethnic communities as to the influence of NATO membership on personal safety. Thus, 17.5% of the Albanians(and only 7.2% of Macedonians) consider that NATO membership will increase their personal safety to a great extent. An additional 35% of Albanians(as opposed to 20.8% of the Macedonians) answered that the NATO membership will increase their safety to some degree. Only 13.8% of the Albanians do not consider increased safety to be a likely consequence of the NATO membership. This figure for Macedonians is 32.6%. Perceptions of the Role of the United Nations Agencies The agencies of the United Nations, and their operations, play a subordinate role in the media when compared to the EU and NATO. As these bodies directly deal with a number of quality-of-life issues in both rural and urban areas, there is a need to evaluate the way the youth perceive them. 49.7% of the youth in Macedonia see a contribution by the UN agencies in the development of Macedonia, while a relatively high 28% do not see any specific role of these agencies. This indicates a need for greater awareness among the young population of the various projects implemented by the United Nations agencies. However, in grouping the data according to ethnic community membership, we can see that more Albanians (22.7%) believe that UN agencies greatly contribute to Macedonia's development than do Macedonians(6%). Additionally, 44% of Albanians consider that the UN agencies contribute somewhat to development, which totals 67% of the young Albanian population who believe that UN agencies contribute to Macedonia's development. On the other hand, even though the UN agencies are most active in the rural and smaller urban environments, the level at which their contributions are perceived is similar within all types of populated places. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions: ? The trend of strong support for joining the EU is also present among the young population; at the same time, a slight disparity is noticeable in comparison to the general population's level of support, that is, there is a lower percentage of support among the younger generation. ? Strong support for the process of EU accession dominates throughout all demographic categories without significant fluctuations. ? The younger generation in Macedonia supports the European integration process more than the youth of the European Union itself does. ? The European Union and the process of accession are perceived as extremely important factors in solving certain problems in Macedonia's social and political platform. There is a commonly-held belief that the process of European integration will, to a great extent, _____________________________________________________________ 42 See page 20 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 30