According to a new Eurobarometer survey of the European Parliament on ‘perceptions and expectations’, 71% of EU citizens would like the EU to intervene more in the protection of external borders. The differences across Member States are moderate, with the exception of Sweden. The strongest support for increased EU action is registered in Cyprus (86%), the Czech Republic (81%) and Malta (80%). The weakest support by far is expressed by citizens in Sweden (48%) – the only country in which less than half of the citizens surveyed support increased EU intervention in this area. Other countries with comparatively weak support are Croatia (61%) and the Netherlands (64%). However, this still means that two thirds of the population would like to see increased EU involvement in external border protection. Almost two thirds of EU citizens surveyed evaluate current EU involvement as insufficient, and only 26% evaluate it as adequate. There is a gap between the perception of the current EU involvement in the protection of external borders and the expectations of citizens in that area. A similar expectation gap also exists in some related policy areas, such as migration.
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