Eurobarometer survey: EU citizens' awareness and perceptions about EU Regional policy
On the 18th of October, the European Commission has published the Eurobarometer report on EU citizens' awareness and perceptions about EU Regional policy. This Eurobarometer is part of a trend series; the previous report was published in February 2008. The current report presents comparative data between the two surveys.
Description
This EU-wide survey questioned representative samples of EU citizens in each EU Member country. Questions asked in the survey included:
- How many EU citizens are aware of the support received in the framework of EU regional policy?
- How many feel that their cities or regions – and they personally – have benefited from the policy?
- What should EU regional policy have as its priorities, both today and in the future?
- Which are the preferred information sources?
Discover some surprising results and find out how your country compares with the EU avarage.|
Highlights in the report are that about a third of EU citizens said they had heard about EU co-financed projects to improve their area; of those 'aware' citizens, 76% felt that the EU's support had had a positive impact on development in their city or region. Furthermore, a large majority of EU citizens accepted that the Union's regional policy served as a tool to reduce the gap between development levels of the various regions in the EU: 88% said that it was rather a good thing that most regional funding was concentrated on the poorest regions in order to help them catch up with the rest of the EU. Finally, when asked where Eu regional support should be targeted, three quarters of respondents said that it should go to regions with huigh unemployments. Remore rural or mountain areas and deprived urban areas were each mentioned as priority cadidates as well by just under half of respondents.
Publication date
September 2010
Type of document
Policy