Support for priority spending on different policy areas changes over time, but with a different intensity (see Figure 12). Nine of the policy areas – administrative and personnel costs; agriculture and rural development; defence and security; assistance to EU neighbours; regional investment; development and humanitarian aid; employment, social affairs and public health; education, training, culture and media; and immigration issues – have seen a change by up to two percentage points. Regardless of the actual level of support for these policy areas, their desirability and image in the eyes of the citizens demonstrate stability. That can be said even for the policy area of employment, social affairs and health. Although support for it has fluctuated over the studied period, its position as a top spending priority for Europeans has never been contested by another policy area. At the other end of the scale, support for priority EU spending was at its lowest as regards administrative and personnel costs – barely reaching one percent. The name of the category in the survey questionnaire (the category of ‘Economic growth’ was transformed into ‘Economic and monetary policy’). However, this policy area had experienced the most significant decrease in support even before the change of the name in the survey question.
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