employment social affairs and public health

In the case of the policy area of Employment, social affairs and public health, the gap between desire for and perception of EU spending was the opposite of that on administrative expenses (see Figure 16). The desire for priority spending in that area was consistently higher than its perception for all Member States. The largest gap between desire and perception was registered in Portugal. In 2020, it was a gap of 46 percentage points, with the perception of EU spending as priority in this area shared by only 12 % of citizens and the desire – by 58 %. Curiously, the Portuguese were amongst those whose perception of EU spending in this area was one of the highest percentage-wise. However, their expressed desire was even stronger, which explains the significant gap. Italy and Romania, on the other hand registered one of the smallest gaps.