Public expectations and EU commitment on the fight against unemployment

According to a new Eurobarometer survey of the European Parliament on ‘perceptions and expectations’, 77% of EU citizens surveyed would like the European Union to intervene more in the fight against unemployment than it does currently. Although there are differences across Member States, the variation in opinion is moderate. The strongest support for increased EU action is in Cyprus (94%), Portugal (93%) and Spain (91%) and is almost unanimous. The weakest level of support in Denmark (60%), the Czech Republic (66%) and the United Kingdom (66%) nonetheless shows support from two thirds of respondents in those countries. The fight against unemployment, together with the fight against terrorism are the two policy areas with the highest number of citizens (69%) who evaluate current EU action as insufficient. There is a significant gap between EU citizens’ expectations regarding EU involvement and their perception of current involvement.