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EUROBAROMETER Public opinion in the EU
19.12.2007, 13:22
The current Standard Eurobarometer, Eurobarometer 68 was carried out between September 22nd and November 3rd 2007. This Autumn Standard Eurobarometer covers 31 countries or territories: The 27 EU Member States, the three candidate countries (Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey) and the Turkish Cypriot Community in the area not controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus.
In both Luxembourg (+21, to stand at -4), Greece (+19, to stand at -17) and Croatia (+17 to stand at -1) there has been a significant increase in economic confidence from the more pessimistic outlook seen in Spring of this year.
Support for future EU membership is running very high in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (76% think this would be a good thing). In the other candidate countries it stands at 49% in Turkey and 35% in Croatia.
Given that overall results are very close to those seen for Spring of this year, it is logical that changes in results for individual countries are few and low in magnitude. It should be remarked, however, that support for membership has increased significantly in France (+8 points from 52%), Luxembourg (+8 points from 74%) and Greece (+7 points from 55%).
Amongst the Candidate Countries, a significant increase in support for future Membership can be seen in Croatia (+6 points from 29%).
In most countries, the EU is more trusted than distrusted. Amongst the Member States there are four exceptions to this: the UK (25% trust, 53% distrust), Germany (39% trust, 47% distrust), Sweden (40% trust, 45% distrust) and Finland (43% trust, 51% distrust).
Amongst the Candidate Countries, trust in the EU is low in Turkey (25% trust, 59% distrust) and Croatia (32% trust, 57% distrust). In the latter the government and parliament are also trusted by a low proportion (20% both), whilst in the former trust for these institutions is high (Turkish parliament 64%, government 63%).
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is a different case: here trust in the EU is high at 63% and much lower for the national government (36%) and parliament (23%).
At the level of individual respondents, it is particularly instructive to see that there is a strong link between trust in the EU and trust in national institutions: 53% of those who trust the EU also express trust in their national government (compared to a survey average of 34%), with 55% of the same group trusting their national parliament (compared to the survey average of 35%).
Of those who tend not to trust in the EU, just 15% trust in the national government and 16% in the national parliament.
See more: Standard Eurobarometer 68: Autumn 2007