The latest Standard Eurobarometer survey results have been published – the first EU-wide opinion poll conducted since the European Parliament elections in May which were organised under the slogan “This time it’s different.”

The latest Eurobarometer survey shows that this time it was different with positive developments in several areas.

After the European Elections, the number of citizens who feel their voice counts in the EU has risen from 29% in November 2013 to 42%. This is the highest level since this question was first put into the Standard Eurobarometer a decade ago. In addition, 65% of Europeans feel like an EU citizen, up from 59% in the last Autumn Eurobarometer. 87% of Maltese said that they feel like an EU citizen.

Vice-President Maroš Šefcovic, responsible for inter-institutional relations and administration said, “we have been through challenging times but Europe is now turning the corner. Joint efforts at European level to set Europe on the path of economic recovery are starting to pay off. Not only are the economic indicators improving but so too is the attitude of citizens towards the economic situation. And, of course, the many debates around the European Elections – not least the Citizens’ Dialogues and the ‘Spitzenkandidaten’ process – have brought Europe closer to its citizens.”

For the first time since the beginning of the financial crisis seven years ago, more Europeans think the economic situation will improve in the next 12 months. And almost three out of four four people do not expect a negative trend. In Malta 46% of those questioned thought that the economic situation would improve in the country and 36% thought that it would improve in the EU.

And for the first time in years, the percentage of Europeans who believe that the impact of the crisis on the job market has reached its peak is larger than that of those who think that the worst is still to come. In Malta 44% thought that the employment situation for Maltese would be better in the next 12 months.

Support for the Euro is on the rise. And whilst Lithuania is getting ready to adopt Europe’s single currency, we see a 10 percentage point increase (since last autumn) in the number of Lithuanians who say they are in favour of the euro. There are also see similar trends across Europe: + 10 percentage points in Latvia and Cyprus; + 5 percentage points in Portugal and Greece.

Finally, people are more optimistic about the future of the EU. Since last November, there has been a rise of five percentage points in those saying they are optimistic while the number of those saying they are pessimistic has fallen by five percentage points. More than half of the people now have an optimistic outlook whilst only two out of five do not entirely share this sentiment.

The Spring 2014 Standard Eurobarometer was conducted through face-to-face interviews between 31 May and 14 June 2014. A total of 32,689 people were interviewed across the EU Member States and in the candidate countries. In Malta a total of 504 interviews were carried out.

The results of the Eurobarometer survey for Malta are available for download here.

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