EUROBAROMETER: LATEST POLL SHOWS MORE POSITIVE IMAGE FOR EU.

The survey was carried out between October 2 and November 8 2004 in thirty countries: the 25 EU Member States, the four candidate countries (Romania. Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey) and Northern Cyprus.

The first questions concerned what citizens thought were the most important issues facing their countries. The survey found that unemployment was one of the main concerns of all EU citizens (46%) but especially in the new Member States (62%) followed by the economic situation (27%) and crime 24%). Mrs Wallstrom said that this data was a "wake-up call for action" and would be "at the core of the political programme of the next Commission".

The poll found that 56% of those questioned believe that membership of the EU was a good thing for their country, an increase of eight percentage points since the question was last asked six months ago. Strongest support for EU membership was found in Luxembourg (85%), Ireland (77%), the Netherlands (75%), Belgium (73%) and Spain (72%). Support was lowest in the UK at 38% followed by Latvia (40%), Malta and the Czech Republic (both 45%) and Austria (46%). Sweden has the largest percentage of respondents who felt being in the EU was a bad thing (24%) followed by the UK (22%). Mrs Wallstrom commented that contrary to popular opinion there was no "widespread opposition to Europe" but there was a "risk of indifference or even apathy" which had to be tackled.

Fifty-three per cent of those polled felt that there were benefits of being in the EU, an increase of six percentage points since the last survey six months ago. Ireland had the highest proportion of people convinced of the benefits (87%), followed by Latvia (78%), Greece (76%) and Belgium and Luxembourg (both 72%). The UK and Sweden had the lowest percentage of respondents convinced of the benefits of membership (36% and 39% respectively) while the Swedes had the highest number who thought they had not benefited (47%) followed by the Finns, the Austrians and the British (all 45%).

Image and trust.

Fifty per cent of respondents had a positive image of the EU, also 6% more than six months ago, while the number of those with a negative view fell to 15% from 21%. Interestingly, the country with the highest number of positive comments was candidate country Romania with 76%. Ireland had the next highest result at 75%. Sweden and the UK had the most negative image with 31% of respondents saying they did not view the EU positively.

Trust in the EU institutions has...