On the eve of the first referendum in Europe for the ratification of the Constitution (Spain, 20 February), Eurobarometer has published the results of a survey on citizens’ knowledge and appreciation of the Constitutional Treaty signed in Rome on 29 October 2004. The survey, conducted in the 25 member states of the EU on a sample of 25,000 citizens between October and November 2004, “shows that public opinion is on the whole favourable to the Constitution”, although “the level of indecision remains high in terms of knowledge”. In other words, those familiar with at least the essential contents of the Constitution support it, whereas the Europeans completely ignorant of it are still very numerous. According to Eurobarometer, “more than half of the citizens of the Union say they know little about the Constitution and a third say they have never even heard of it”. According to the survey, 11% of EU citizens believe they know the content of the Constitution “as a whole”; 56% say they know little about it and 33% “declare they have never even heard of it”. Eurobarometer tried to test the familiarity of the interviewees with the Constitution through a simple quiz. In this case the results are not very encouraging. For example 39% of the sample “wrongly believe that a direct European tax will be created”. On the other hand 49% of those interviewed say they are favourable to the Constitution, 16% are against it and the rest voiced no opinion at all.
