Brussels, 17/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission published the initial results of the Eurobarometer survey conducted in April and May, which indicate relative stability in the answers provided by European citizens to questions traditionally asked, as well as a slight increase in indifference towards their country's belonging to the EU. The complete report is expected in September.
48% of citizens believe that their country's belonging to the EU is a good thing (50% last autumn), 13% that it is a bad thing and 29% are indifferent (2% more than at the end of last year). It is mainly in Luxembourg (+8%), the Netherlands (+8%), Austria (+6%) and Portugal (+5%) that this indifference is most marked, but it also increased in Germany and Denmark (+4%). Same tendency on the question of "do you believe that your country benefits from its belonging to the EU or not?". 45% (2% less than last autumn) answered "yes", 30% said "no" and 25% didn't know (4% more than in the previous Eurobarometer). Except for the Netherlands, Portugal and Finland, the camp of the don't knows was strengthened throughout, and mainly in Spain (+7%) and Italy (+6%).
Trust in the European Commission remained relatively stable: 45% of Europeans "tend to trust" it (1% less than last autumn), but the don't knows are on the increase (+5%), most of these being Italians (+7%), French and Portuguese (+5% each). As for support for the common foreign policy (65%) and a common security and defence policy (73%), it remains at the level recorded last autumn.
As for the euro, 59% of Europeans are in favour of the single currency, or 4% more than in the previous survey. The "in favour" brigade increased especially in Austria (+6%), Luxembourg (+6%), Germany (+6%) and France (+5%). Over 33% spoke out against (-4%).
Finally, 43% of Europeans consider that the Union must enlarge (1% less than last autumn). The number of opponents remains stable at 35%, an the don't knows have increased by 2%. Curiously, it is in Ireland, which rejected the Treaty of Nice, that the number of people in favour of enlargement has increased most (+7%), whereas it has fallen in Italy (-8%), Denmark (-6%) and Sweden (-6%).