Brussels, 16/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Eighty-five percent of EU citizens believe that Europe should continue to help developing countries despite the economic crisis (as opposed to 88% in 2011), but only 44% would be prepared to personally spend more money on products that support development such as fair-trade goods (compared with 47% in 2011), with sizeable variations from country to country. These results were reached by a new, special Eurobarometer survey. They were presented on Tuesday 16 October by Andris Piebalgs, European Development Commissioner, at the opening of the European Development Days (EDD, seventh edition), in Brussels.
The Eurobarometer survey was carried out by TNS Opinion & Social between 2 and 17 June 2012. Some 26,622 Europeans aged 15 or over were interviewed face to face in their homes. Results point to 61% of Europeans being in favour of increasing aid to help people out of poverty. A majority (55%) consider that rapidly growing emerging countries should no longer receive aid. Sixty-one percent of respondents took the view that aid should be focused on countries left fragile after conflict or natural disaster, for example, and 30% of respondents believe the EU should help developing countries, whether they are in a fragile situation or not. Half of those taking part in the survey (49%) are of the opinion that the EU should keep its promise to increase aid to developing countries, and 12% think that aid should be increased beyond what has been promised. At the same time, 18% think that aid should be reduced because Europe can no longer afford it - a figure that has increased by 7 percentage points since 2009.
European citizens believe private companies have a positive role to play in developing countries, especially when it comes to creating jobs (57%). Eighty-one percent agree that private companies have social and ethical responsibility when investing in developing countries, and 87% think donors like the EU should try to ensure that private companies adhere to social and ethical standards. Of all respondents, 53% consider corruption is the biggest obstacle to successful development of poor countries.
Commenting on these results, Piebalgs said: “The EU is about to decide the next seven-year budget and people are sending a clear message to their leaders - savings should not be made at the expense of the poorest on the planet. But they also demand guarantees that aid goes to the poorest and provide visible results”. That is the EU's objective with its programme for changing development policy after 2013.
As proof that the economic crisis does not affect solidarity towards the poor, in Spain, the rate of support for helping the poor has not changed since last year (88%). In Greece and Italy, the decrease was minimal (-2 percentage points), while in Ireland the support increased by 3 percentage points to 88%. Only in Portugal (-10 points) was the decline in opinion more noticeable.
Although Europeans are less willing to commit themselves personally, citizens from the EU15 countries are far more willing to pay more (50% compared with 25% for the EU12). In six member states, a decline of at least ten percentage points has been noted: in Greece (33% are willing to pay more), in the Czech Republic (28%), in Slovenia (30%), in Spain (35%), in Lithuania (24%) and in Portugal 12%. It comes as no surprise that the citizens of the richest countries are more willing to buy fair trade goods. In the lead are Sweden (76%), the Netherlands (76%) and Luxembourg (70%).
The north-west of Europe is more in favour of increasing development aid funding than the south-east of Europe. In Sweden, Denmark and Austria, a large majority of citizens (80%, 76% and 74% respectively) are in favour of taking development aid to 0.7% of GNI or more. The three countries with the highest number of people who would like to reduce aid are: Bulgaria (38%), Slovenia (32%) and Greece (30%).
Europeans consider that development aid should mainly focus on human rights (34%), education (33%), health (32%), economic growth (29%) and agriculture/food security (29%).
The Special Eurobarometer can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb_special_399_380_en.htm #392. (AN/transl.jl)