Two in three Romanians are optimistic about EU future, more than the European average

Two in three Romanians (66 percent) are optimistic about EU future, much more than the European average (57 percent). The values that represent best the EU are the human rights (34 percent- Romania, 33 percent-EU), democracy 32 percent- Romania, 33 percent EU) and peace (32 percent- Romania, 40 percent-EU), according to the Eurobarometer standard 88 study.

„Romanians continue to believe in Europe and the values that it promotes. We need their trust and dynamism, to build the future EU, whose bases will be put at the Sibiu summit in 2019, during the Romanian presidency of the EU Council,” said Angela Cristea, the head of the European Commission office.

More than half of Romanians say they incline to trust the European Parliament (56 percent compared with 45 percent the European average) and the European Commission (50 percent compared with the European average of 42 percent). The trust in the national institutions is still reduced. For example, 21 percent of Romanians trust in the Government.

For the next year, 35 percent of Romanians say the national economic situation will be worse, after Greek (48 percent), Croatians and Brits (39 percent). Regarding the economic situation of EU, one in two Romanian citizens, similarly with the EU average, says it’s rather good and very good.

Also, 47 percent of Romanians believe that EU is going to the good direction, with a share over the European average, with 17 percentage points. Regarding Romania, the direction where the country is heading is wrong, according to 64 percent of the Romanian respondents, while at the European level the average is 49 percent.

The standard Eurobarometer studies are published twice a year, on summer and winter, starting 1974.

The data for standard Eurobarometer 88 was collected in Romania during November 5-12, 2017 by TNS CSOP company. The sample was represented by 1,062 persons aged 15 years and above.