“92% of the Azerbaijani population trusts in their government, says the poll conducted on Azerbaijan for 2012 within the EU Neighbourhood Barometer.

The poll was conducted among 1000 respondents in November-December, 2012 within the project funded by the European Union to study public opinion in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) countries.

The EU Neighbourhood Barometer (opinion polling and media monitoring) is part of the EU-funded Regional Communication Programme, and aims at assessing knowledge and perception of the EU Neighbourhood Policy and its cooperation activities and programmes, says statement issued by the European Neighborhood Info Center on March 25.

Azerbaijanis questioned in the poll were optimistic about their lives – much more so than other countries in the region – with 65% satisfied with the life they lead, and degree of satisfaction rising the younger and more educated respondents were.

The vast majority of respondents trust in their government (92%) and the parliament (68%).

The respondents are also satisfied with the development direction of their countries: 48% believed that Azerbaijan is moving in the right direction, only 17% disagreed with it. The economic sentiment index is also high: 69% of respondents believe that the economic situation is good, 60% are satisfied with the results of the democratic processes in the country.

53% of respondents felt the EU had good relations with Azerbaijan. This ratio is more favorable than the average for the ENPI East region (45% and 29% respectively).

Of those asked, just 37% felt the EU was an important partner, but 51% believed the EU and Azerbaijan share sufficient common values to be able to cooperate.

Factsheets summarizing the findings of the EU Neighbourhood Barometers were published to coincide with the recent release of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) package of 2012 progress reports of countries covered by the ENP.

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