Will uncertainty diminish?

One European out of three is already sure he/she will go to the ballot box to choose the future members of the European Parliament. But the majority of electors are still undecided. Anxieties about everyday life, beginning with jobs, take priority in citizens’ minds, whereas “global issues” – such as security and immigration – seem to take second place. The latest survey of Eurobarometer, dedicated to the European elections on 4-7 June, is not without surprises. But “the results of this survey – say the experts of the polling agency – must be placed in the context of the international situation today”.Citizens worried on the economic front. The problems of daily life, beginning with the economy and employment, concern Europeans more than anything else. They are ever less bothered about the major geopolitical problems of our time. The issues they would like to see debated in the electoral campaign are pre-eminently those linked to individual and social rights. Eurobarometer published on 15 April the results of a survey conducted between mid-January and mid-February on a sample of 27,000 citizens of EU member countries, for whom it turns out that the “main source of concern” is the recession and its possible effects: 57% of electors indicate unemployment as their main worry. Other concerns, again of an economic order, follow, such as growth, inflation, purchasing power and the security of pensions systems. Insecurity – prime non-economic problem – is indicated by 29% of interviewees, followed by worries about energy supplies (27%) and climate change (26%). Market instability has overtaken immigration and terrorism (respectively 24%), which were uppermost in the minds of Europeans until just a few months ago.The young are the least well-informed. 34% of interviewees told Eurobarometer they would undoubtedly vote in the elections to the European Parliament, while 19% said they had no intention of voting. So those still undecided remain over half of the total. On the whole “interest in the elections” to the EP “is not improving” in comparison with the intentions expressed during the last two elections (1999 and 2004). The percentage of citizens who know the date of the elections on the other hand is growing, though the well-informed on this score amount to no more than 16%! It should be noted that socio-demographic differences exist in this regard: men are better informed than women, whereas the least informed of all are youths below the age of 24. More in general, the survey found that “44% of those interviewed declare themselves on the whole interested in the European elections, in contrast to the 53% who say they are not interested”. In this sense the information campaign now being run by the EP in member states could play an important role. “Give more coverage to daily problems”. Public opinion is also polarized as regards the Parliament’s role: “Almost half of all Europeans would like the EP to play a more important role” in the EU, explains Eurobarometer, “while a sixth of those interviewed said quite the opposite”. According to the sample, the visibility of the EP in the media has declined in recent months due to more headline-grabbing events such as the conflict in Georgia, the economic crisis, and the election of Obama as President of the USA. The experts of the polling agency conclude that the perception of the economic crisis, with the direct consequences it may bring, has led to the EU’s international role being diminished in citizens’ eyes: “The citizens who are convinced that the Union ought to concern itself primarily with the daily problems of Europeans are now more numerous”. Poor information, high trust. If we analyse the data gathered by Eurobarometer in greater detail (and observe that significant differences exist between the citizens of the various nationalities), we can gauge the degree of knowledge among electors of the systems of election, operation and powers of the Parliament in Strasbourg. 53% of interviewees said, for example, that MEPs are elected by universal suffrage (a year ago the percentage was 48), while 23% of the sample did not know. Only 36% of Europeans know however that MEPs sit in the chamber according to their political affiliations; the same percentage is represented by those who, erroneously, think MEPs are grouped according to nationality. More or less half the interviewees knew that the number of MEPs varies according to the size of the population of member states. Rather disheartening percentages, on the other hand, regard knowledge of the powers (legislative and budgetary) exercised by the European Parliament.