Poll: Citizens expect EU elections to focus on economy

With the financial crisis pushing the EU towards recession, citizens say they want economic issues placed at the centre of next year’s election campaign, a Eurobarometer poll revealed. However, very few seem to be aware that an election will actually take place.

The poll, published on 24 September, reveals that citizens’ awareness of the election remains low, with only 16% of Europeans knowing the year in which voting will take place (a mere 4% could give the exact year and month). 

The lowest awareness levels are registered in the UK and Finland, with 94% of respondents saying they “didn’t know” when the elections would take place, followed by Bulgaria (90%) and Latvia (83%). The highest awareness levels were recorded in Luxembourg, Greece, Slovakia and Belgium, where about a third of respondents knew that the elections would take place in 2009 (43%, 36%, 32% and 30% respectively).  

The survey was conducted between March and May 2008 by TNS Opinion & Social among a total of 26,661 interviewees across the 27 EU member states. It took place with face-to-face interviews conducted in peoples’ homes. 

Despite the low figure, EU enthusiasts will be quick to point out that figures have improved since a similar Eurobarometer conducted six months ago. Back then, only 10% of respondents said they knew the elections would take place in 2009. 

“The overall improvement in awareness of the election date is fairly logical and it will continue to improve as the date grows closer,” the authors write. 

Interest low on average, high in Ireland 

Only 8% of Europeans said they were “very interested” in the European elections, with 38% “somewhat interested”. 29% said they were “somewhat disinterested” and 22% were “very disinterested”, while 3% “didn’t know”. 

Results vary considerably from one member state to another, however. In 11 countries, an absolute majority of respondents said they were interested in the elections. And the proportion exceeds six out of ten respondents in Romania (65%), Malta (63%), Ireland (62%) and Cyprus (61%). 

On the other side of the spectrum, more than seven out of ten respondents in Latvia (79%) and the Czech Republic (71%) said they were not interested. 

Pollsters also tried to measure potential voter turnout but they considered that the data provided no basis to make predictions as the polling took place more than a year before the elections. 

Campaign issues 

Answering a series of questions, EU citizens established a very clear hierarchy of the campaign issues. Economic concerns came first, above 40%. Second came fears linked to global phenomena, such as crime or climate change (between 30 and 40%), and finally questions related to EU policies and institutions (between 10 and 20%). Here again, there are considerable differences depending on the country. 

In more detail, economic concerns focus most on unemployment and very little on the social model. Three concerns are head and shoulders above the others: 

• Unemployment with 47%; 
• economic growth with 45%, and; 
• purchasing power with 41%. 

Preserving the European social model accounts for only 12%, while the future of pensions stands rather high at 32%. 

Topics linked to global phenomena rank as follows: crime 37%, terrorism 35%, combating climate change 33% and immigration 32%. 

Very clearly, Europeans are keen on giving their vote to candidates with EU experience. This criterion ranks first with 40%, compared to 29% for the candidate’s national experience, 30% for the candidate’s personality and 17% for reputation. 

Trust in Parliament remains high 

On the issue of trust, no major shift occurred compared to previous polls, with the European Parliament remaining the most-trusted EU institution with 52%, while the Commission has 47%, the Council 43% and the European Central Bank 50%. 

Read more with Euractiv

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