The Eurobarometer survey conducted in the run-up to the European Development Days suggests that "a vast majority of citizens (61%) think the EU may give a positive contribution to the discussion on global development"; in addition, "42% ask the media to give more coverage to development issues". Margot Wallstrom, deputy president of the EU Commission, states: "The Europeans understand better and better why development is important and ask the national media to give more coverage" to such issues. According to Eurobarometer, "it is interesting to see that the economic crisis is not considered a crucial challenge for the developing countries: one European out of two think the main problem for such countries is poverty, which is more serious than the economic and food crises (35%). The Europeans seem to point out that, apart from economic decline, poverty is the fundamental structural problem". The reasons they mention for giving aids to the most disadvantaged regions of the planet include several objectives, such as the global trade development, the fight against terrorism, the containment of migratory flows and the improvement of political relations with the third countries.
