EUROBAROMETER : TACKLING POVERTY SHOULD BE PARLIAMENT'S TOP PRIORITY.

One in two Europeans still believe that the top priority for the European Parliament should be to tackle poverty and social inclusion, according to a Eurobarometer survey know as the Parlemeter'. Coordinating economic, budgetary and fiscal policies now ranks second.

As in previous Eurobarometer surveys, 49% (-2) of those interviewed felt that Parliament should focus first on the fight against poverty. What is new is that the coordination of economic, budgetary and fiscal policies now ranks second (37%, +9) with a sharp increase in responses within the eurozone (42%, +13). The survey also found that 40% of Europeans would like to receive more information from the EP on possible ways to tackle the crisis.

The importance assigned by the public to two external EU policies has strongly increased: security and defence policy (29%, +5 with important national variations, reaching 25 percentage points) and foreign policy (21 %, +5). Policies that are...