Romanians remain among the most optimistic citizens of the European Union regarding the future of the EU, reveals a Eurobarometer survey issued in July by the European Commission. Among the most worrying problems for Romanians are immigration and terrorism.
According to data collected in May 2016, some 70% of respondents in Romania have declared they are totally optimistic about the future of the European Union, while 26% said they are totally pessimistic. It is to be noticed a slight deterioration in Romanians’ perception regarding the future of the EU as compared to a similar Eurobarometer survey conducted in November 2015, when 73% of respondents in Romania were optimistic regarding the future of the EU.
In regard to euro-optimism, Romanians remain in second place of the 28 EU member countries. On the first place are the Irishmen: 77% believe in the future of the EU, while 18 do not.
In Bulgaria 58% are optimistic about the future of the EU and in Hungary 44%, the same level registered in the UK, which has just voted to leave the EU bloc.
On the third place are the respondents in Malta – 67% optimistic about the future of the EU.
Regarding the current image of the EU, Romanians have a positive perception: for 42% of Romanian respondents the EU has a positive image, and for 14% negative. 43% have a neutral perception regarding the EU.
However, it is worth noting that the share of Romanians with a total positive perception fell by 15 percentage points in the poll in May 2016 against the Eurobarometer in November 2015, the steepest dive in the bloc.
On average, the EU citizens have a totally positive image of the bloc’s in a share of 34% (by 3 percentage points lower as compared to November 2015) and totally negative 27% (4 pp up), the Eurobarometer reveals.