The number of Romanians who believe things are going in the right direction in Romania has fallen rapidly. Only one in four Romanians still believe in this, and the decrease is 7 percentage points as compared to March 2017, shows the Eurobarometer survey conducted by the Kantar Institute at the request of the European Parliament, realitatea.net informs.
If only one in four Romanians believes things are going in a good direction, 62% say the opposite, i.e. up 10 percentage point increase against the previous Eurobarometer in March.
With the exception of the UK, Romania has the largest growth of those who believe things are going in the wrong direction.
The survey was conducted in the 28 Member States of the European Union during September 23- October 2.
– 25% of Romanians believe things are going in the right direction (-7%)
– After Germany (-9%), Romania registers the steepest decline
– 62% of Romanians believe things are going in the wrong direction (+10%)
– After the UK (+14%), Romania registers the highest growth
Regarding the way Romanians see the EU integration, things are nuanced. A majority close to the European average, 61% of the Romanians (-3% as compared to October 2016) consider that Romania has benefited from the EU membership status, while 48% of the Romanians (-6% against March 2017) say the EU membership is a good thing and 32% (+2% against March 2017) consider this to be neither good nor bad. 46% of Romanians believe that the main benefit brought by the EU is the access to new professional opportunities, according to a press release issued by stiripesurse.ro.
In Romania, those who believe their voice counts at EU level are more (42%, -3% against March 2017) than those who think their voice counts in their own country (37%, -11% against March 2017). At the level of the entire European Union, 47% (+4% as compared to March 2017) believe their voice counts in the EU and 61% (-2% against March 2017) believe their voice matters in their own country.
43% of Romanians (+5% as compared to October 2016, above the EU average of 33%, up by 8%) have a positive opinion about the European Parliament and 38% have a neutral opinion. 60% of Romanians want a more important role for the institution against 47% of Europeans.
Most Europeans (55%) and Romanians (54%) said they were interested in the European elections in 2019.