Nearly two-thirds of EU citizens are concerned about the security of the European Union, according to a recently published survey commissioned by the European Commission.
Some 47% of EU citizens surveyed said they were “moderately concerned” about the bloc’s security over the next five years, while another 17% said they were “very concerned”.
According to the results, people in Portugal (77%) are most concerned about safety. In Germany, 54% of respondents said they were “fairly” or “very” concerned about the safety of the EU.
More than 25,000 EU citizens aged 15 and over were surveyed online by the polling agency Ipsos between late June and early July for the representative poll.
According to the poll, about 58% of EU citizens are still optimistic about the future of the EU, while about 37% are pessimistic.
Around 50% of EU citizens consider the war in Ukraine to be the biggest challenge facing the EU at the moment, while 41% of respondents consider irregular migration to be the biggest challenge at the moment.
Another 35% of respondents also mentioned environmental issues and climate change.
When it comes to issues the EU should prioritise, respondents most often mentioned the environment and climate change (33%) and illegal migration (also 33%), followed by security and defence (29%) and the war in Ukraine (25%).
Opinions among EU citizens vary about the EU’s economic performance over the next five years.
About 50% of respondents said they were confident about the future of the economy, while 45% said they were more skeptical.
