IP/06/1825
Brussels, 18 December 2006
Standard Eurobarometer 66: Autumn 2006
The Autumn Eurobarometer focused both on the key indicators covering the general attitudes of EU citizens towards the EU, but also for the first time on values and societal issues currently debated in many Member States.
Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy, said about the survey "This Eurobarometer survey shows that, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaties, citizens clearly identify the Union with universal values like human rights, peace and democracy. Support is growing for the reform of the way the Union works, and people have high expectations about the EU.
The survey shows also that, just before the entry of two new Member States, the EU must provide more leadership on explaining the benefit of enlargement."
The three main indicators covering the general attitudes towards the EU – the support for EU membership (53%, - 2), the perceived benefits of membership (54%, no change), and the image of the EU (46%, -4) – have either remained stable or declined slightly since Spring 2006. A parallel tendency in the level of trust can be observed for the Commission (48%, +1) and the Parliament (52%).
Overall, the number of people who feel that things are going in the right direction in the European Union is higher than those who take this view about their own country (33% vs. 28%). Conversely, 48% of EU citizens think that things are going in the wrong direction in their own country while they are 33% to state the same for the EU.
Support of EU citizens to a common foreign policy (68%) and a common defence and security policy (75%) remains widespread.
With 46% of citizens supporting further enlargement of the EU in future years and 42% opposing it, the gap between supporters and opponents of further enlargement remains small.
In the countries that have not ratified the Constitution Treaty, 53% are in favour of the treaty which represents an improvement compared with Spring 2006 (+6). In Poland and Portugal more than 60% of citizens are in favour of the European Constitution.
For EU citizens, the three values which represent best what the EU is, are human rights (38%), democracy (38%) and peace (36%), while the values which are most important for them personally are peace (52%), respect for human life (43%) and human rights (41%).
The majority of EU citizens (64%) agree that free competition is the best guarantee for economic prosperity and consider that the state intervenes to much their life (62%). At the same time, the majority of EU citizens does not approve of authorization of homosexual marriage (49%) nor the adoption of children by homosexual couples (61%).
This 'Standard Eurobarometer' survey was conducted through face to face interviews by TNS Opinion & Social. A total of 29152 people were interviewed between 6 September and 10 October 2006. The First results are available on the public opinion web page in the Europa web site: