A Eurobarometer survey published on Friday 13 February shows Europeans’ growing perception of threat for their countries in the current international situation.
According to the survey, based on 27,292 interviews conducted in the 27 Member States, 68% of Europeans believe that their country is under threat. This feeling of threat is highest in France (80%), followed by the Netherlands and Denmark (77%). It exceeds 50% in all Member States.
The majority of Europeans trust the EU to strengthen security and defence (52%), particularly in Luxembourg (76%), Portugal (74%), Cyprus (73%) and Lithuania (71%). However, only 40% of Greeks and French and 43% of Austrians have confidence in the EU on this point.
42% of respondents approve of the current level of EU investment in defence, and 32% even believe that spending should be increased. This support is particularly high in countries such as Lithuania (80%), Portugal (89%), Finland (83%), Spain (80%) and Denmark (78%). It should be noted that 12% of those questioned said they did not know how much was spent on defence at EU level.
Furthermore, 53% of Europeans say that security and defence are a key priority for EU space policy.
To see the Eurobarometer: https://aeur.eu/f/kpz (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)