According to the Eurobarometer, the recession in the economy, unemployment and impoverishment are the main problems of modern Greeks.
Citizens’ concerns, as well as their opinions, are reflected in the Eurobarometer poll, a social survey conducted on behalf of the European Parliament.
citizens EU want parliament to protect democracy: a third of respondents (32%) consider this the most important value that needs to be protected. 39% of Greek citizens believe in “the rule of law”.
Health (42%), poverty and social exclusion (40%), and climate change (39%) are top political priorities for Europeans. Accordingly, for the Greeks: supporting the economy and creating new jobs (65%), fighting poverty and social exclusion (58%), healthcare (56%).
70% of Greek citizens want Parliament to play a more important role in the future, significantly higher than the European average of 58%. Support by citizens of the EU and the EC (the European Union and the European Parliament), in particular, has increased significantly during the pandemic.
According to the survey, almost a third of Europeans (32%) choose democracy as the main European value to protect, followed by freedom of speech and thought (27%) and the protection of human rights in the EU and worldwide (25%).
Solidarity among EU member states follows with a small difference (34%). In Greece, the rule of law and democracy are equated with the values that the parliament must protect, with 39% and 38% respectively.
The rise of extremism, the spread of disinformation and the weakening of the rule of law are also of concern to European citizens.
This is reflected in the results of a recent poll on the future of Europe, published by Parliament and the Commission in mid-January 2022, according to which nine out of ten Europeans agree that there is still room for strengthening democracy in the EU.
Eleven member states prioritize the defense of democracy: Sweden, Germany, Finland, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. Respondents in the Czech Republic and Hungary also ranked the protection of human rights as a top priority.
Overall, European citizens still consider public health a top political priority for parliament (42%), followed by combating poverty and social exclusion (40%), and climate change (39%). Young people put the fight against climate change at the top of their list. Answering the same question, 65% of Greeks chose “support for the economy and the creation of new jobs, the fight against poverty and social exclusion (58%) and healthcare (56%)”.
The majority of EU citizens (62%) positively assess their country’s participation in the EU, which is the highest result since 2007 for the second year in a row, and only 9% say otherwise. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72%) say their country has benefited from EU membership. In this context, the majority of respondents (63%) are optimistic about the future. 42% have a neutral attitude towards EU membership, while only 15% have a negative attitude. However, the majority of Greek citizens (63%) believe that the country has benefited by becoming a member of the EU.
The interest of European citizens to learn more about the work of the EU remains constant. According to the current survey, 43% of respondents are more interested in knowing how money from EU funds is being spent. Citizens also want to know more about the specific impact of European legislation introduced in their country (30%), the activities of their national MEPs (29%), and what the EU is doing to overcome the pandemic (29%).
In Greece, every second person wants to know more about the impact of European legislation on their country (53%), how the EU has radically changed the Greek community (52%), and how exactly EU funds are spent (52%).
However, 48% of Greeks are interested in learning about their rights as a citizen of the European Union, and the same percentage are wondering what the EU is doing to overcome the pandemic.
The European Parliament has made it clear that the allocation of funds from the EU Recovery Fund must be based on clear and approved plans, subject to consistent and transparent oversight, and subject to respect for our fundamental democratic values.
“Citizens want and have the right to learn more about the concrete impact of EU policies and decisions on their daily lives,” said European Parliament President Robert Metsola.
Support from EU and EC citizens has increased significantly during the pandemic. The majority of citizens (58%) want the European Parliament to play a more important role in the future, while the 36% of EU citizens who view the European Parliament positively increased by 12 percentage points compared to the previous year, including an increase of 3 points compared to 2019
45% of respondents are neutral towards the European Parliament and only 17% are negative. 70% of Greeks, significantly higher than the European average, call for a stronger role for the European Parliament. Approximately every second inhabitant of our country has a neutral idea of the European Parliament (48%), while the rest equally share negative (24%) and positive (26%) among themselves.
The positive position of the European Parliament is also reflected in the latest Eurobarometer of the European Commission, which shows that the European Parliament is the most trusted EU institution.
The opinion poll was conducted from 1 November to 2 December 2021 in all 27 EU Member States. A total of 26,510 interviews were conducted, with EU scores ranked based on the population in each country.
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