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Eurobarometer 2019

Every year the European Commission does research in every country in the EU to find out the opinions and feelings of EU citizens. Sometimes it’s what they might consider ‘good news’ sometimes ‘bad news’. What can definitely be said is that it’s not propaganda. 

The results are published every August. Here are the results for this year’s survey.

One thing that has been of concern to all EU citizens is how much one can trust the EU, their own national government and their own national parliament. It’s been pretty level for the last few years with a very slight right in trust for the EU. This isn’t surprising as there were EU elections this year so people would look at the European Parliament more closely. 

What is also unsurprising is the country spread from 72% trusting the EU in Lithuania to 29% trusting the EU in the UK. Only 5 of the 28 countries have more than half the population distrusting the EU.

However, although there is some distrust the overall image of the EU is increasing – and quite dramatically.  Since the low point in the first half of 2016 it has risen from 34% to 45% and the negative image of the EU dropped from 27% to 17%. 

And looking at the future of the EU the trend is even higher. Now 61% of EU citizens are optimistic about the future of the EU and 34% pessimistic. All except the UK and Greece have half the or moe of the population optimistic about the future of the EU!

The most dramatic change though is how much EU citizens believe their voice is heard in the EU. Since 2004 those people who believed their voice was not heard were in the majority, with at the highest point two thirds of EU citizens believing their voice was unheard. 

This has now switched. In this survey 56% believe their voice heard and only 39% believe their voice unheard. The countries that have the lowest perception of their voice being heard are Cyprus, Latvia, Greece and Estonia where less than one third feel their voice is heard.

Along with that there is an increasing  satisfaction with the way democracy works in the EU. Again this year being a European Parliamentary election year that is hardly surprising. People see how EU democracy works first hand!

Right across the EU a majority of the population are citizens of the EU. This is internalising the factual truth of being one. Since the autumn of 2018 the feeling of being an EU citizen has increased in 22 of the 28 member states. In Cyprus this rose dramatically by 8% to 73%. 

But being an EU citizen is more than just a feeling. The survey asks which of a list of attributes of  the EU are the most positive. The two leaders by a long way are the free movement of people, goods and services and peace among the member states of the EU.

Alongside the attributes of the EU are our achievements as a community: Cheaper calls when using a mobile, improved consumer rights and other cross border protections. 

Of course as well as achievements there are concerns: Immigration, climate change, the economic situation, terrorism and so on. Immigration though still the leader dropped 6% as a concern, to the point that it is now only one of the two top concerns for one third of EU citizens.

Looking at this over the past five years one can see that concern over immigration started lower than today, peaked and is now on a downward trend. Similarly terrorism. 

But rising now, are climate change and the environment. If the trend continues these will be the primary concerns over the next few years.

Although immigration is the number one concern for the EU as a whole, at the national level it is down to number five. This probably means we can expect to see that drop further in the coming years. 

At the national level the environment and climate change are rising, but the two top issues are unemployment and the cost of living. These are normal peace time concerns.

Although those are the concerns looking back over the past five years there are dramatic changes. In 2004 nearly half EU citizens were concerned about unemployment!

Economically about half of EU citizens believe that the EU economy continues to be good and just over one third believe it to be bad. 

However, when asked about the Euro as a currency more than three quarters of those in the Euro zone are for the currency and nearly two thirds of those outside the Euro zone are for the currency. In seven countries, all outside the Eurozone, the majority of EU citizens responded against the currency.

Overall the Eurobarometer appears to show the EU in a more positive light than at any time over the past decade!


The challenges and benefits of dual-nationality

Globalisation has brought its challenges. One of those challenges is that of dual-national marriages. Falling in love with someone from a different country may make you unwelcome as a couple in either country. Sometimes, it takes years to resolve where you can live in the world, which can be especially hard on the  children involved. I am the product of a mixed family, but for me, my citizenship has made it a lot easier, possibly even a blessing. EU citizenship makes it easy for people from Member States to fall in love and live almost anywhere in Europe.

My British mother and French father taught my brothers and me the pleasures of multilingualism and travelling, as they have now worked for decades as university lecturers with backgrounds in modern languages, before later specialising in law and economics, respectively.

I first enjoyed freedom of movement as a new-born baby in 1992 when visiting relatives in northern France, an inevitability of growing up in a bilingual Franco-British household. From a young age, I was made aware that the relationship between the English and other nationalities is not always straightforward. I was pestered upon countless occasions for being ‘the French kid’ in school, despite being known as ‘the British guy’ everywhere else in the world!

My parents, on the other hand, reminded me many times of how lucky I was to be a dual national. Back then I found this hard to believe, for a variety of reasons, but I now embrace it thanks to the many opportunities that have since come my way.

I was pestered for being ‘the French kid’ in school, but ‘the British guy’ everywhere else in the world!

I learned Spanish in secondary school, and was able to pick it up quickly with my existing knowledge of the French language. I was even given the chance to put my conversational skills to the test when attending a week of work experience in a music shop in Segovia (Spain), an incident that gave me a taste for an adventurous life of living abroad. Alongside this, I began to attend extracurricular German classes in 2004.

The years flew by and I went on to study a bachelor’s degree in Modern European Languages at the University of Liverpool in 2010, aiming to increase my chances of finding work further afield at a later stage. After finding out about Brazil’s growing economy and the fast development of Portuguese-speaking nations such as Angola, I picked up Portuguese from scratch whilst studying French and Spanish at a higher level. With my previously acquired knowledge of two Latin-based languages, Portuguese came to me quite easily, despite the not-so-obvious initial difficulties in pronunciation. These languages have since functioned as a gateway for dabbling in other Latin-based languages, including Catalan, Italian and even Romanian.

Students were encouraged to partake in a two-part ‘year abroad’, an essential requirement to boost our language abilities from intermediate to advanced level, before reaching our fourth and final year of undergraduate study. I chose to teach English as a Comenius Assistant at a secondary school situated in Porto (Portugal), with financial aid from the British Council.

Once I had made my own diverse group of friends and regained confidence, life abroad became easy and enjoyable.

I then studied translation and literature on the Erasmus scheme at the Universidad de Alicante (Spain). Erasmus is an EU-funded scheme with a number of programmes, one of which provides participants with a monthly bursary to support their student lifestyle in a different country. This was the first time I was away from England for more than a couple of weeks, having to immerse myself into another culture. It was of course a little daunting as I missed my family and friends, combined with the unfamiliarity of these two cities, and worrying constantly about making grammatical errors in speech. Once I had made my own diverse group of friends and regained confidence, life abroad became easy and enjoyable.

My first graduate role was in international sales for a small company based in Yorkshire, specialising in exports to France, Germany, Ireland and Spain: a prime example of an SME that relies on free trade with our neighbours. Cold-calling was not really my strong point, and I struggled to gain an interest in the pest-control products we were manufacturing, but I got to travel on a monthly basis to visit clients across Europe, which was very exciting and helped me progress my cross-cultural communication skills, from conversational to being used in a business context. It was at this point that I felt the need to study at postgraduate level, in order to broaden my professional horizons.

In 2015, I enrolled in a three-part multilingual master’s degree in European & International Business Management at the Universidad de Deusto (Spain), Audencia Nantes Business School (France) and Bradford School of Management (United Kingdom). I focussed on marketing, combining my expertise in business development with the best of my creative side. My EU citizenship has allowed me to study and work throughout Europe without any bureaucracy constraints; I have seen the difficulties imposed on classmates coming from East Asia, North Africa and Latin America when it came to dealing with an exhausting visa process.

I also experienced this stress first-hand when completing a short internship in Shanghai (China), which led onto working for one year in a Hong Kong law firm. I did find, however, that being in possession of an EU passport was very useful for travelling around the Asia-Pacific region, enabling me to discover cultures, try new foods and make everlasting friendships.

My EU citizenship has allowed me to study and work throughout Europe without any bureaucracy constraints

I have worked in various parts of the world since obtaining my masters, notably at a Scandinavian bank based in Luxembourg. I am delighted to say that, thanks to my EU citizenship, professional experiences, education and passion for multiculturalism, I landed my dream job of working for the European Commission last year, the civil service of the European Union. As a communications officer I liaise with the press and share news on the benefits that EU investment has brought each of its Member States, in an attempt to set the record straight at a time when one cannot always rely on the media to be accurate.

Personally, I have never been particularly patriotic, as I find it difficult to be proud of something that happened purely by chance. Even though my dual-nationality gave me some grief during my upbringing, I feel that it has provided me with a competitive advantage over my peers.

As well as the freedom to live, travel, study, work and later retire in any EU country, I am currently cohabiting with my Canadian partner in Brussels (Belgium), another right I enjoy as an EU citizen.  I am thankful for my EU citizenship, and believe in the ideals of the European Union at a time when protectionism is increasingly worshipped and isolation is celebrated. My EU citizenship is part of my core identity. It is who I am, and without it, I probably would not have moved out of my hometown, a feeling that chills me to the bone. EU citizenship makes falling in love and living together across borders something we can celebrate rather than fear.

Born into a bilingual Franco-British household, Olivier was raised in a multicultural context, an environment that provided him with a passion to discover the world outside England in the years to come. His goal is to learn all he can on the benefits of EU membership, from its investment schemes to citizens’ rights and freedoms, and share this information with his friends and family back home.

Cheaper calls and Emergency Alerts

From 16 May 2019 EU citizens will be better protected. The EU is putting in place a Public Warning System that will allow authorities to push essential information about threats to citizens via their mobile phones. This is also referred to as “Reverse 112” (112 is the number to call in any EU member state in an emergency), this system will be used whenever a natural disaster or terrorist act takes place so people know what to do to avoid dangers.

The purpose of this system having the technie name of European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), is to communicate information regarding potential hazards (man-made or natural) to EU citizens via their phones, through a geolocalised message-sending technology. This type of warning should allow citizens to evacuate or avoid a danger zone more quickly thereby reducing the chances of casualties.

This came as a result of two EU committees – the ITRE (Industry, Research & Energy) and the IMCO (Internal Market & Consumer Protection) working with the mobile phone companies throughout the Union to push alerts, be they a natural disaster like a flood, tsunami or volcanic eruptions, or man made like terrorism directly to mobile phones in the area concerned.

This comes in the middle of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva. ‘We must respond to today’s challenges, but also think about the risks of tomorrow. The citizens of this world expect their leaders to act, and we simply can not bear the cost of inaction. EU is convinced that the implementation of an effective disaster risk reduction policy is essential to adapt to the effects of climate change and to face new emerging risks,’ said Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, in a statement today on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

Cheaper calls to other EU countries as of 15 May

Because the EU is a single market the digital realm is part of what we call the Digital Single Market. So on 15 June 2017 Roaming charges ended in the European Union. And now from 16 May 2019 the EU has fixed a maximum amount you can be charged for calling another EU country!

The maximum charge will be €0.19 (+ VAT) a minute for calls to another EU country, and a maximum of €0.06 (+ VAT) per SMS sent to another EU country. That’s not when you’re traveling and therefore roaming, that’s when you’re in your home country and calling another EU country.

The maximum price is only for personal use, i.e., for private customers. Business customers are excluded from this price regulation. So this really is the EU working for citizens rather than just a trading block!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVEl4_57vY0

So what happens if your mobile company is not behaving? If you think your mobile company has not respected your roam like at home rights or is charging you too much to call another EU country the first thing to do is to contact your mobile phone company and use the complaint procedure in place to contest these extra charges. But, if you are not satisfied with the response you can contact the relevant national regulatory authorities in your country, usually, your national telecoms regulator who will resolve your case.

Friends will be Friends

     
This is a video from A4E: 30 Artists from all 28 EU member states performing the iconic anthem of friendship. Many voices, one important message: #vote4friendship at the EU elections May 23rd-26th.
 
Don’t just sing along. If you agree that we are best when united in all our diversity; if you agree that hate and separation are not answers but threats; if you agree that Europe at its core is about friendship: Spread the word and share our video message.
 
And most importantly: Vote in this EU election because Europe needs us!
 
We’re not affiliated with Alliance4Europe, but support many of it’s activities.  Alliance4Europe is a politically independent institution, supporting various initiatives against the many bad influences on Europe. We stand for friendship across borders. Because the forces that divide us will never be as strong as those that unite us. That is why we celebrate European friendship and unity ahead of the elections in May. And A4E is their pan-European all-star band. United in diversity. Friends will be friends.
 
 

Alliance4Europe links

Young people embrace a united Europe

One idea which has been flying around a lot in the last few years is that of the ‘digital native’. Young people who have grown up in the age of computers and smartphones, and who take any new technology in their stride. But I think that youth today are also intuitively comfortable with another important concept – that of a united Europe.

Those of us fortunate enough to be born in the twilight years of intra-European cooperation see the impact of such a union in every part of our lives. We have done Erasmus exchanges on the continent, we enjoy delicious food from all parts of Europe, and go on holiday there to escape the terrible British weather. We are entrepreneurs trading with the huge European market, artists collaborating with European talent, and so much more. Europe is not simply a geographical or political region; it is something we live and breathe every day.

And the fact of the matter is that this unprecedented integration, accessibility and teamwork is in large part due to the European Union. Visas and work permits are a thing of the past – those wanting to see the Colosseum or join a Dutch startup can do so with less hassle than ever, all thanks to the Treaty of Rome. Looking to import a BMW, Belgian beer or sell British-made products in Europe? All possible with no paperwork due to EU regulation.

Photo from Canonbury Primary School website

Aside from these more general benefits, it is also important to remember the value of the EU closer to home. In my borough of Islington alone, the examples are endless – £15,000 to Canonbury Primary School to improve language skills, £380,000 to help the Shadow Robot Company innovate high-tech surgical tools, or even £160,000 to fund Aedas Architects’ development of more terrorist-proof buildings.

The value of this investment in our local communities, combined with the benefits of the European single market, is far greater than what we contribute to the EU. It’s not for nothing that all the economists think leaving this arrangement is madness!

But no matter the benefits they derive from European integration, many young people today are not doing battle for their right to maintain this, or shape how it will look in the future. British youth are overwhelmingly against Brexit, but only 19% of them voted for an MEP in 2014. How can this be? Do we not want our voices to be heard?

Democratic participation is increasingly important today, as our hard-won freedoms and rights come under threat from an onslaught of misinformation and lies. A golden opportunity to take action is coming up soon, with the European elections on May 26 looming ever closer. We must seize this chance with both hands; as if we don’t fight for our own future, there definitely won’t be anyone else to do it for us.

ian-profile

Ian Sowden 19 years old.  He is standing as an independent candidate MEP in the 2019 European Parliament election. 

  • Photo of Sarajevo International University from Storyblocks

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