Brussels, 19/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Employment is currently the top priority in the regions of Europe, which express a predominantly negative view of the economic situation. Those were the main tendencies revealed by the first Eurobarometer survey carried out to show European public perception at a regional level, presented on the occasion of the European Conference on Public Communication (EuroPCom), on Wednesday 17 October, at the initiative of the Committee of the Regions. Mercedes Bresso, Vice-President of the advisory body, said: “It is important to make the effort to not always reflect from a national perspective. That is why I am very glad that, for the first time, this Eurobarometer takes a regional point of view enabling us to better understand public perception from Europe's regions”. The survey covers 170 regions, which allows the different perceptions between European areas to be noted. Coming as no surprise, it reveals that the effects of the crisis are felt more keenly in the regions in the south and south-east of Europe. The perception of the quality of life in these regions is also more negative than in the regions to the north and west of the continent, which considers the quality of life to be “good”. Nonetheless, the report sheds light on the fact that the perception of “quality of life” is not systematically linked to economic factors alone. (MD/transl.jl)