Brussels, 01/07/2016 (Agence Europe) -The European project still has wide support among member states, accruing to the European Parliament. A week after the British referendum, the EP published the results of a survey on 1 July highlighting the feeling of belonging to a common project and European citizens' expectations.
The Eurobarometer poll was carried out between 9 and 18 April 2016 of 27,969 people in the European Union representative of the whole of the population. It shows that three-quarters of Europeans (74%) feel that what brings the citizens of the various member states close to the EU is more important than what separates them. A fifth (19%) of respondents, however, disagree with this statement.
Another interesting observation is the fact that most participants feel than the European Union should intervene more than at present. The most frequently cited domains for this activity are, in descending order, the fight against terrorism, unemployment and tax fraud, immigration, protection of external borders and the environment. The importance placed by citizens on anti-terror is partially explained by the fact that the poll was taken not long after the terror attacks in Brussels (23 March). The survey shows that 40% of those polled feel that the risk of terror attacks is high in their own country. They feel that the EU's action in this domain should follow the following three objectives: fighting against the financing of terrorist groups, fighting against radicalisation, and boosting controls at external borders.
These overall results need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Then it comes to individual policies, there are wide differences among countries. For example, for the policies mentioned above, the gap between countries reaches 34% on migration and 39% on protection of external borders. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)