Brussels, 08/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to a Eurobarometer survey published by the European Commission on Thursday 7 May, EU civil protection activities enjoy massive and increasing support from European citizens.
This special Eurobarometer (433) measures the level of information about and support for this policy based on cooperation in disaster prevention and coordinated preparation and response to these disasters, wherever they occur.
The survey reveals that 88% of respondents support the EU-wide civil protection policy because of the cross-border nature of many disasters. 87% are supportive of the EU helping any country in the world affected by a disaster. An even greater number, 90%, also says that they would expect help from other EU countries if a disaster were about to happen in their country.
“European citizens agree that coordinated EU action in dealing with disasters is more effective than having any country acting alone…The consequences of a disaster often affect many countries at once. We are determined to continue working together to further develop prevention and preparedness”, explained Christos Stylianides, EU commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management on the occasion of the European Civil Protection Forum, in Brussels.
Only 37% of the respondents believe that their countries have sufficient means to deal with major disasters while 80% say that coordinated EU action would be more effective than actions undertaken by individual countries.
There is widespread concern (77%) amongst EU citizens about the potential economic impact of man-made and natural disasters in their respective regions. Only a minority believes that enough is done to prevent disasters or prepare for them at a regional level (40%), at a national level (39%) or at an EU level (31%). The number of respondents unable to answer the question, due to lack of information of what is being done at an EU level in terms of prevention, was also high.
It is in fact the question of awareness and information regarding disaster risks, as much as EU civil protection mechanism activities themselves, which is most revealing. This is borne out by the fact that only 55% of respondents say that they are aware of these risks in their region and just 29% consider that they are sufficiently informed about risk when travelling to another EU member state.
Television and the Internet are the main sources of information used by respondents to obtain information. There has been a clear increase in the use of online information over the past three years (56% for the Internet, compared to 51% in 2012 and 16% for social networks, as opposed to 10% in 2012).
This survey was conducted by TNS Opinion & Social on behalf of the European Commission (DG Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection) between 21-30 March 2015 in 28 EU member states and individual interviews from a representative sample of the population. In total, 28,082 people were interviewed.
The 28 member states of the EU, in addition to FYROM, Iceland, Norway, and, most recently, Turkey (see EUROPE 11309) take part in the EU civil protection mechanism. (Aminata Niang)