Brussels, 18/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Europeans support closer coordination of economic, budgetary and financial policies among member states, they have a clear desire for member states to play an active role in tackling the crisis, there is widespread support for financial solidarity with member states in difficult economic straits, and a desire for policies to protect citizens (tackling poverty and exclusion, consumer protection, etc). These are the main conclusions that can be drawn from the findings, published on Thursday 14 October, of a Eurobarometer survey of 26,635 EU citizens conducted by TNS Opinion for the European Parliament.
The survey confirms the keen concerns felt by Europeans with regard to the crisis. 63% of respondents said putting economic governance in place to ensure coordination of all member states' economic, budgetary and financial policies would be an “effective” measure, compared with 19% who thought it would not be effective. In closer detail, 65% believe that offering incentives or threatening financial penalties to force or encourage member states to abide by the debt and public deficit rules that were agreed in common would be an effective step; and 58% believe that submitting member states' national budgets to the European Commission would help prevent and avoid future crises.
Measures for avoiding crisis. In 18 member states, the majority wanted priority to be given to recovery of the economy. The countries where most respondents said that recovery measures were the quickest way out of the crisis were Denmark (69%), Lithuania (65%) and Finland (52%). It was in Portugal (25%), Germany (26%), Spain and Austria (35% each) that respondents were least in favour of giving priority to economic recovery measures.
Giving priority to reducing public spending won the largest support in four member states - Estonia (42%, compared with 37% for recovery measures), France (46%, compared with 38%), Slovenia (36%, compared with 24%) and Slovakia (50%, compared with 33%). Respondents in Spain (22%), Lithuania (23%) and Bulgaria (25%) showed the least support for measures to reduce public spending.
A massive 70% of European citizens backed measures to supervise and regulate the activities of financial market players. Putting in place a banking tax and a tax on financial transactions got less support: 47% for, 32% against, 21% don't know.
Doubts over euro. 560% of people surveyed felt that the euro had not offered protection from the negative impact of the crisis (up 5% from November 2009). The three countries (Slovakia, Finland and Italy) where there was most support for the euro having overall mitigated the negative effects of the crisis are all euro area members, while the three (United Kingdom, Sweden and Bulgaria) where most people took the opposite view are not. The survey revealed that 11% of Europeans believe that the loss of their jobs is a direct consequence of the crisis. (L.C./transl.rt)