85% of the Germans do not know about the German EU presidency in 2007.
29% of Germans on being in the EU: disadvantages prevail
- Wednesday, 22 November 2007
The German daily F.A.Z. reports on a poll which was done by the Association of banks (BdB). 1529 German voters were asked. The result reflects drastically how far away German citizens are from the EU and how little they do know about it. It also states quite a contradiction between the moderate approval of EU benefits by the citizens and the enthusiasm for the EU spread by the German government, parliament and the media.
However, for many observers from all across the EU who normally think that Germans in general are the most enthusiastic Europeans, these figures will be quite enlightening. Speculations about other countries could be made. Most probably the realities in other countries resemble the one in Germany. All this is definitely far away from the world of the Brussels' institutions with thousands of well educated individuals, very well paid by the EU and most of them fluent in two, three or even more languages.
The FAZ article quotes the following figures of the poll:
Economy: 71% do not believe that the EU can become the economically strongest region during the next 10-15 years.
Euro: 55% think that sense of community in Europe remained unchanged (32%) or was even weakend (23%) by the euro. 41% believe that it was boosted by it.
EU membership: Only 22% believe that EU membership brings more advantages than disadvantages to Germany. 29% the disadvantages outnumber the advantages.
Constitution: 56% think there should be a common constitution. But 40% never heard of the constitution which was actually rejeted by France and the Netherlands.
From the 53% who had heard about the constitution only 50% would have said "yes" to it.
EU basic knowledge: Only 12% knew how many members states the EU has.
85% did not know that Germany is going to run the EU presidency next year.
51% said they would not know which institution in the EU has the most decision power.
8% think it would be the European Council, 12% said it would be the European Commission and 25% named the European Parliament as most influential.
Common values: Only 36% with low education believe in a common European culture but 64% with university degree do.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung