Environmental protection_bar chart_map_GW

Environmental concerns have been debated intensively at EU level for many years now, covering a wide range of perspectives and areas of impact. As a result, the EU has a broad policy in the area. According to a series of Eurobarometer surveys done for the European Parliament on ‘perceptions and expectations’, the support of EU citizens for even stronger EU involvement in environmental protection grew from two thirds in 2016 to three quarters in 2018.
There are significant differences in the way this policy is perceived in different Member States. With few exceptions, there is a trend of central and eastern European countries being less supportive of further intensification of EU involvement in environmental policies than western European countries. The strongest support comes from Cyprus (87 %) and Portugal (88 %). The lowest is registered in Estonia – 52 %, which is still a significant increase from the 45 % registered in 2016. The notable outliers of the east-west division remain Romania and the UK.