The Eurobarometer’s survey offers a very detailed (and mainly pessimistic) view of the European public opinion at regional level in 2015. It has been published in October under the title: “Public opinion in the EU regions“. The survey was realised by interviewing citizens aged 15+ from all the 28 EU member States and living in one of the 209 considered European regions (a mix of NUTS I and NUTS II). Questions were divided into four main areas:

Regional Economic Situation and Quality of Life: public opinion puts on evidence a still not cohesive European Union, showing deep differences among Central/Northern Regions and Southern/Eastern Regions, in terms of feelings about the present and future economical conditions and the level of quality of live. At the same time, pessimistic expectations about the quality of life for the next year prevails in only 22 European Regions.

Main issues in the region: immigration is dramatically growing in importance, especially in Sweden and Central Europe. However – although it registers a drop – the main issues under the EU regional public opinion still remains unemployment, especially in France, Finland, the Mediterranean and in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs).

Trust in the EU: trust, at regional level, is very uneven. However,  only 42% of the respondents tend to trust the EU, confirming what had already emerged in 2012.

The best placed to explain how European policies impact citizens’ day-to-day life: for the majority of the CEECs, the best placed are Members of the European Institutions. In Western Europe, on the contrary, regional and national representatives are best ranked. Finally, complete skepticism largely prevails in Italy, Greece and Cyprus.

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