Bank supervision would be “more effective at EU level”, Eurobarometer poll

Brussels, Belgium, 18-10-2013 — /EuropaWire/ — Over half of EU citizens feel that banks should be regulated by the EU, rather than national governments. Half also believe that they would be better protected against the economic crisis if their countries coordinated anti-crisis measures with other EU member states, suggests a Eurobarometer poll published on Friday.

Over half the respondents (54%) said that bank supervision would be “more effective at EU level” than at national level and 57% said the same about support for banks in difficulty. Asked about guarantees for citizens’ bank deposits, 47% said that action at European level would be more effective than at national level, whereas 45% said the reverse.

Solving the crisis 

50% of respondents felt that Europeans would be better protected against the current crisis if their countries coordinated anti-crisis measures with other EU member states (down five points from June 2012), while 41% felt that they would be better protected if their country were to “go it alone” (up three points).

A majority of respondents felt that the euro had not “mitigated the negative effects of the crisis” (51%, down three points), while 38% felt that it had (up four points).

EU budget

When informed that the EU budget accounts for about 1% of its member states’ GDP, 39% of respondents judged this share “appropriate”, 22% “too small” and 13% “too big” (26% “didn’t know”).

Looking forward to 2025

Looking forward to 2025, respondents were asked who they thought will be able to protect them most effectively against the negative effects of globalisation. The result was a “dead heat” between the EU (49%) and national governments (49%).

For 74%, “jobs and combating unemployment” still top the list of priority policies (up two points on June 2012).

Note to editors

This is the second part of a Eurobarometer survey of the European Parliament entitled ‘One year to go to the 2014 European elections’. The first part (on institutional issues) was published on 5 September 2013. The fieldwork was carried out between 7 and 23 June 2013 in the 28 member states, with some 27,624 respondents.

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