THE VOICE OF EU CITIZENS

The EU is quick to say that 'Europe needs to listen more to its citizens to make sure that policies designed in Brussels take into account the diversity of an Union of 28 Member States with over 500 million citizens".

According to the 'Standard Barometer 80' (published in Autumn 2013), two-thirds of Europeans consider that their voice does not count in the EU (66%). The proportion of Europeans considering that their voice counts in the EU still represents less than three Europeans in ten (29%).

My Voice does NOT Count

1. Cyprus: 86%
2. Spain: 80%
3. Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic: 79%
4. Latvia: 77%
5. Estonia: 76%
6. United Kingdom, Romania: 74 %
7. Slovakia: 69%
8. Slovenia: 68%
9. Lithuania: 67%
10. Austria: 64%
11. Bulgaria: 63%
12. Ireland: 62%
13. Hungary, Finland: 60%
14. France: 59%
15. Netherlands: 57%
16. Germany: 54%
17. Luxembourg: 53%
18. Poland, Croatia: 52%
19. Belgium: 51%
20. Sweden: 50%
21. Malta: 46%
22. Denmark: 41%

It will be interesting to see how these figures correlate with the participation of citizens in the next European Parliament elections