73% of Luxembourg Residents Have Positive View of Europe

Luxembourg based market researcher Quest SA has announced the main results of its survey on the perception of the current and future state of Europe.

The survey, motivated by the war in Ukraine, was conducted in Luxembourg between 3 and 14 April 2022. The results were based on 1,000 representative interviews conducted among the resident population.

The first finding is that despite diverging comments in the media and on social networks about the European Union's role in the Ukrainian conflict, a majority of citizens still have a positive view of Europe. In absolute terms, this figure is 73%.

However, the attitude of resident population has deteriorated slightly since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict. 29% of the respondents take this view, compared to 25% who take a more positive view on Europe.

A large proportion of respondents (68%) believed that securing peace between Member States is the mostimportant task of the EU. This is followed by the freedom to travel (57%) and the sharing of democratic values(57%).

A large majority (78%) of Luxembourg residents appreciated the European Union's support to Ukraine. Only a minority(33%) disagree with the EU's support for Ukraine. The issue of Ukraine's EU membership meets with 52% approval among the population, whilst a minority (33%) said they were against Ukraine joining the EU.

The findings are rather two-fold: a large majority of respondents (71%) mention the positive effects of the EU's involvement in thecrisis while, at the same time, a significant proportion of the sample (60%) recognises the EU's systemic weaknesses.

Almost half of the respondents (46%) were in favour of strengthening the powers of the European Union (EU) against those of the Member States. The areas to be primarily targeted are climate and environmental policy (51% of respondents), defence policy (48% of respondents) and energy policy (46% of respondents).

Considering the priorities for the EU in the coming years, 29% quote the EU's environmental and energy transition and 15% are in favour of abandoning the principle of unanimous decision-making in order to allow the EU to remain in a position to act and decide, whislt 13% said that the EU should defend its democratic and humanist values at the global level.

Finally, two thirds of the respondents support the idea of Europe as a host ground for the oppressed. 65% believe that the EU has room for manoeuvre to improve or even strengthen the welcoming of those fleeing oppression, persecution and violence.

The survey recalled that there were practically no differences in the above findings for the different sociotypes considered.