Malta near freezing point
At the end of 2020, more respondents EU-wide saw things on the right path at EU level in comparison with their own country. Furthermore, nearly three out of four respondents (72%) and a large majority of Maltese (91%) believe the EU Recovery Plan would allow their country’s economy to recover more rapidly from the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
A new survey commissioned by the European Parliament and conducted between November and December 2020 by Kantar finds an increase of ten percentage points in the number of citizens who expressed a positive view of the EU (50%) compared to autumn 2019. The same percentage of Maltese as the EU average hold this view.
66% of respondents in this survey are optimistic about the future of the European Union. The Maltese are the second most optimistic, after respondents in Ireland, at 79%, showing an increase of 10 percentage points since June last year.
Yet the individual outlook remains pessimistic in the face of the continuing pandemic: 53% of respondents across the EU believe that the economic situation in their country will be worse in one year’s time than it is now.
Overall only one in five respondents (21%) believes that the national economic situation would improve over the coming year. The Maltese are one of two exceptions to this, with 42% believing it will be better, whilst 46% of Hungarians think it will be the same.
More than half of respondents (52%) expect their individual living conditions in one year’s time to be the same as today, whilst 56% of the Maltese believe so. One quarter of respondents (24%) believe they will even be worse off in one year’s time, while 21% think that they would be better off. In Malta, 26% believe they will be better off, whereas 11% believe they will be worse off.
Likely driven by these perceived consequences, citizens are indicating a new top political priority for the European Parliament: 48% of respondents want the fight against poverty and social inequalities at the top of the agenda. This is the first priority in all EU Member States except Finland, Czechia, Denmark and Sweden, where the fight against terrorism and crime comes first. In Malta, 50% of respondents prioritise the fight against poverty and social inequalities.
On EU average, measures to combat terrorism and crime (35%), to ensure a quality education for all (33%) as well as to protect our environment (32%) follow suit. For Malta, second and third priorities are measures to protect the environment and biodiversity (41%), and measures to combat terrorism and crime (37%) respectively, with measures to improve access to quality education for all in fourth place with 31%.
A similar shift also appears in citizens’ ranking of the core values the European Parliament should defend. While defence of human rights worldwide (51%) and equality between men and women (42%) remain on top, solidarity between Member States goes up to third place with 41% of respondents wanting Parliament to defend this value above all others, compared to 33% one year ago.
Malta follows the same trend, with human rights on top with 44%, and equality and solidarity in joint second with 41%.
The pandemic and other global challenges such as the climate emergency sustain the citizens’ call for fundamental EU reform. 63% of respondents want the European Parliament to play a more important role in the future, an increase of 5 points compared to autumn 2019. Whilst 68% of respondents in Malta favour this, this figure is down by 2 percentage points.
And while the positive image of the EU was increasing at the end of last year, so did the call for change: only 27% support the EU just the way it has been accomplished so far, while 44% ‘rather support the EU’ but want to see reform being brought about. Another 22%’s view of the EU is ‘rather sceptical but could change their mind again in light of radical reform’.
Opinion in Malta is more equally divided, with 35% supporting the EU the way it is and 33% rather in favour of the EU, but not the way it has been realised up to now. 22% are sceptical but would change their mind in the event of radical reform. Only 6% are opposed to the idea of the EU in general, and 4% ‘don’t know’.
European Parliament President, David Sassoli said: “The message of this survey is clear: European citizens support the European Union and they find that the EU is the right place to seek solutions to the crisis. But reform of the EU is clearly something citizens want to see and that is why we need to launch the Conference on the Future of Europe as soon as possible.”