Survey: EU citizens concerned about economy

BRUSSELS, Dec. 18 (Chinese media) -- European Union (EU) citizens are concerned about the economy while their general attitudes toward the EU have remained stable, according to the results of a major survey published on Thursday.

Every seven in 10 EU citizens consider that the situation of their national economy is bad, 20 percentage points higher than a year before, shows the autumn 2009 EU-wide "Eurobarometer" survey.

The same percentage of EU citizens are pessimistic about the world economy.

EU citizens have also very pessimistic short-term expectations. More than half believe that the economic situation in their country will get worse in the next 12 months, while 41 percent hold this view for the economic situation in the EU as a whole and49 percent for the economic situation in the world.

Over one third (37 percent) of EU citizens consider the economic situation as one of the two most important issues facing their country at the moment, compared with only 20 percent a year before. The other most important issue is inflation.

"The new Eurobarometer reflects the difficult times in which we currently live. Citizens are clearly very concerned by the economic crisis," said European Commission Vice President Margot Wallstrom, who is responsible for institutional relations and communication strategy.

The EU citizens' attitudes toward the EU have not changed from last year, the survey shows.

Three main indicators -- the support for EU membership (53 percent), the perceived benefits of membership (56 percent) and the image of EU (45 percent) -- either remain stable or slightly dropped since the spring 2008 survey.

Trust in the EU institutions also remains stable with the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Central Bank gaining trust from about half of EU citizens. The tendency not to trust them slightly increased.

On the Georgia-Russia crisis, the EU is seen by a quarter of EU citizens as the actor who played the most important role in ending the conflict and 60 percent think this conflict could have an impact on the security of energy supply in the EU.

This Eurobarometer survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews. Over 30,000 people were interviewed Oct. 6 and Nov. 6,2008. Standard Eurobarometer surveys take place twice a year in spring and in autumn.