The Europe Day<\/b> has provided the impetus for discussion and reflection. <\/p>\n
A new survey<\/b> by the Eurobarometer<\/b> reveals that nearly three quarters (72%<\/b>) of Europeans<\/b> believe that their country has benefited from its membership of the European Union (EU)<\/b>. 75%<\/b> say they feel like EU citizens<\/b>, equal to the highest ever recorded in spring 2025.<\/p>\n
In a difficult global context, Europeans strongly believe that the EU is a stabilising force<\/b> (73%). With 81%<\/b>, they express substantial support for a common defence and security policy<\/b> among Member States.<\/p>\n
The majority of Europeans trust the EU (51%)<\/b>, three percentage points higher than in the autumn 2025 survey. Support for the EU’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine remains stable.<\/p>\n
Also, responses confirm the high level of support for the euro (74%)<\/b>. In the euro area, this figure is even higher, with more than eight out of ten respondents (82%<\/b>) expressing support for the single currency. <\/p>\n
In Bulgaria<\/b>, the latest country to join the euro area, support has increased significantly (+13 percentage points), with a majority now in favour (55%).<\/p>\n
At the same time, perceptions of the economic situation have weakened slightly, with 44%<\/b> of Europeans polled believing that the EU economy is in good shape<\/b>. <\/p>\n
A relative majority of people (42%) believe that the European economic situation will remain the same over the next 12 months, compared to 36% who think it will be worse and 15% who think it will be better.<\/p>\n
As for investment priorities<\/b> from the EU budget, more than two out of five EU citizens (41%<\/b>) would like the EU budget to be spent primarily on employment, social affairs and public health<\/b>. <\/p>\n
The security and defence<\/b> ranked second at EU level (38%<\/b>), followed by education, training, youth, culture and media (37%).<\/p>\n
Almost six out of ten EU citizens (57%<\/b>) are satisfied with the way democracy works in the EU<\/b>. <\/p>\n
According to respondents, the values that most underpin the EU are peace (41%)<\/b>, democracy (32%)<\/b>, respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights (28%).<\/p>\n
The issues of concern to European citizens<\/b> are increasingly shaped by global developments. <\/p>\n
At the EU level, the conflict in the Middle East<\/b> is now the main cause for concern (25%)<\/b>, above the wider international situation (23%) and Russia’s war against Ukraine (20%). At the same time, cost of living remains the main reason for concern<\/b> at national and personal level, with 36% and 52% respectively.<\/p>\n
The regular Eurobarometer survey (spring 2026) was conducted from 12 March to 5 April in the 27 member states. EU Member States are invited to build on the results and chart a new course that will give momentum and dynamism to the family of Europe. <\/p>\n
Citizens cannot bear any more deprivation and will react dynamically. It requires consistency and planning<\/b>.<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Europe Day provided the occasion for debate and reflection. A new Eurobarometer survey reveals that almost three quarters (72%) …<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}