perception of eu action as adequate at present – percentage points difference between 2016 and 2018

42 % of Europeans evaluate EU involvement in industrial policy as adequate. This is a six percentage points increase compared to 2016. Back then, the share of citizens evaluating EU involvement in this area as insufficient was one percentage point higher than those considering it as adequate (37 % to 36 %). In 2018, the share of citizens evaluating EU involvement as adequate is already considerably higher than for those evaluating it as insufficient (42 % against 31 %).
This trend of improved evaluation of the EU involvement is almost universal across the EU. Just as with the expectations, there are only two Member States with a marginal decrease of the declared opinions, namely the UK (three percentage points drop) and Greece (one percentage point drop). The survey results do not show a significant gap between citizens’ expectations and actual EU involvement in this policy area and there is no significant change in this over the last two years.