Some 68% of European citizens believe that their country is ‘under threat’ from a security and defence perspective, a survey undertaken by Eurobarometer has found.
According to the survey, which was undertaken to coincide with the recent Munich Security Conference, the majority of Europeans believe the EU has a key role to play in strengthening the bloc’s defence.
The EU member state with the highest threat perception was France, where 80% of respondents said that they felt their country was ‘under threat’, followed by the Netherlands (77%), Denmark (77%), Cyprus (75%) and Germany (75%).
Some two fifths (42%) of European citizens said that they felt their personal safety was at risk from a security and defence perspective.
Institutional responsibility
In terms of institutional responsibility, meanwhile, more than half (52%) of respondents said that they ‘trust the EU’ to strengthen security and defence, with support highest in Luxembourg (76%), Portugal (74%), Cyprus (73%) and Lithuania (71%).
In terms of defence spending, around three quarters of EU citizens (74%) said that they either approve of the EU’s current level of defence investment or believe that spending should be increased.
Support was highest in Portugal (89%), Finland (83%), Lithuania (80%), Spain (80%) and Denmark (78%).
At the same time, however, one in ten (10%) respondents said that they didn’t know about current national-level spending on defence in their country, and one in eight (12%) were unsure about EU-level spending.
Space policy
The survey also examined attitudes toward EU space policy, with security and defence cited as the top priority for European space programmes, by 53% of respondents. This was followed by environment and climate concerns (36%) and competitiveness and growth of European industry (31%).
The positive impact of European space programmes was most widely recognised by younger respondents (55%), Eurobarometer added. Read more here.
