Brussels, 16/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - Reflecting the findings of previous Eurobarometer surveys, 49% of those questioned in a recent survey of how Europeans perceive the European Parliament and policies, and the values they wish to see promoted and defended believe that its first priority should be to tackle poverty. Coordination of economic and budgetary policies ranks second. At the mid-term point of this parliament, the results of this new “Parlemeter” were published on Friday 13 January.
The fieldwork was carried out between 3 and 20 November 2011, in a particularly difficult European context, including the failed referendum in Greece, the change of prime minister in that country and in Italy, the rise in the interest rates on sovereign debts in several countries of the eurozone, the general elections in Spain, and the G20 summit.
The main findings of this analysis are: on the priority policies that Europeans want to see promoted by the European Parliament, tackling poverty and social exclusion remains the top concern. Given the current crisis, it is the coordination of economic, budgetary and fiscal policies that comes second with a sharp increase of responses within the eurozone (37%). With regard to values, human rights come in first position (56%), followed by gender equality (33%) and freedom of expression (32%). Each of these saw its percentage score fall. (LC/transl.rt)