” “”Over a half of the interviewees, both men and women, would like to have two or more children”, but more often that not couples stop at one child only, “because they are worried about the future and the cost of raising children”. A survey by the EU Commission, as part of Dialog project, gives a picture of some aspects of continental demography against the social, economic and cultural conditions of each EU country. The thirty thousand interviewees, from 14 different countries, provided useful information for the “survey” about the population that Barroso’s executive committee will present in March 2006, also based on the debate opened last year by the Green Book about “Coping with demographic change, new solidarity among generations”. The differences between states are remarkable: “In some countries, such as Cyprus, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary and the Netherlands, there’s a gap between the real number of children and the number of children families would like to have. In Germany, Italia, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic, the families want to have less than two children”. The survey concluded that “the countries in which the families want to have a lower number of children should implement policies in support of families”: one of the possibilities is to offer financial support at birth, better family services, help with family burdens, including looking after older people, flexible working hours for parents.
