Public Opinion in the European Union

Standard Eurobarometer 94 Winter 2020 - 2021 Public opinion in the European Union First results Fieldwork: February-March 2021 This document does not represent the point of view of the European Commission. The interpretations and opinions contained in it are solely those of the authors. Project title Standard Eurobarometer 94- Winter 2020 – 2021 Public opinion in the European Union, First results Language version EN Catalogue number NA-AO-21-001-EN-N ISBN 978-92-76-35884-8 ISSN 1977-3927 10.2775/822120 © European Union, 2021 https://www.europa.eu/eurobarometer Photo credit: Getty Images Standard Eurobarometer 94 Winter 2020 - 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 4 I. EUROPEANS AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS 8 1. Trust in national governments and parliaments and in the European Union: trend 9 2. Trust in the European Union: national results and evolutions 10 3. The image of the European Union: trend 11 4. The image of the European Union: evolutions and national results 12 II. THE ECONOMIC SITUATION 13 1. Current situation of the economy at national level: trend, national results and evolution 14 2. Support for the Euro: trend and national results 17 III. THE MAIN CONCERNS OF EUROPEANS 19 1. Main concerns at European level: trend 20 2. Main concerns at European level: national results 21 3. Main concerns at national level: trend 23 4. Main concerns at national level: national results 24 IV. THE EU AND THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC 26 1. Satisfaction with the measures to fight the crisis: trend and national results 27 2. Trust in the EU to make the right decisions in the future: trend and national results 29 3. EU priorities in its response to the coronavirus pandemic 30 4. Economic consequences: national results 33 5. The EU recovery plan ‘Next generation EU’: national results 34 6. Personal experience of the coronavirus pandemic: trend and national results 35 V. ATTITUDES TOWARDS VACCINATION AGAINST COVID-19 36 1. Interest in getting vaccinated against Covid-19: national results 37 2. Attitudes to Covid-19 vaccines: EU results 38 3. Information on Covid-19 vaccines: EU results 39 CONCLUSION 40 INTRODUCTION Standard Eurobarometer 94 Winter 2020 - 2021 far, and on 11 March 2021, at the end of the fieldwork, 43.1 Million This report presents the first results of the Standard doses had been administered in the EU. Eurobarometer survey of winter 2020-2021 (EB94), which was carried out between 12 February and 11 March 2021 in the 27 EU On 17 March 2021, the Commission adopted a legislative proposal Member States. The survey was also conducted in 12 other establishing a common framework for a digital green certificate5 countries or territories: five candidate countries (Albania, covering vaccination, testing and recovery. This certificate aims to Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey), the Turkish facilitate free movement within the EU, in full respect of the Cypriot Community in the part of the country that is not controlled principle of non-discrimination and the fundamental rights of EU by the government of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as in Bosnia citizens. and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kosovo1, Norway, Switzerland and in the United Kingdom. The economy This First results report is published together with the results of The coronavirus pandemic is having a major impact on the the Standard Eurobarometer questions, which are set out in an European economy. However, while the various indicators annex. It focuses on the results obtained in the 27 EU Member collapsed during the first half of 2020, due to the containment States. measures taken in most EU countries, they tended to recover sharply in the third quarter and then to fall again in the fourth Coronavirus pandemic quarter, after the restrictions put in place to counter the second wave of the epidemic. The period between the previous Standard Eurobarometer (EB93, summer 2020) and the fieldwork of the current Standard In the end, growth fell very sharply in 2020, but less than the very Eurobarometer survey of winter 2020-2021, conducted in pessimistic forecasts of the summer of 2020 had feared: -6.8% in February-March 2021 was marked by the prolongation and the euro area, and -6.3% in the EU. The forecasts published by the deepening of the coronavirus global pandemic: the “second wave” European Commission in its Winter 2021 European Economic 2 of the pandemic started in autumn 2020 , after a relative Forecast6 predict an increase of +3.7% in EU27, and by +3.8% in improvement of the sanitary situation in summer 2020. At the the euro area for 2021. beginning of 2021, the appearance of the different variants of the virus – “British”, “South African” and “Brazilian” in particular, their The unemployment rate also fluctuated during the course of 2020: greater contagiousness, and their presumed stronger resistance to after rising sharply in the first half of 2020, it finally fell again in antibodies3 plunged several European countries into a “third wave”, the second half of the year, to stand at 7.3% in the EU as a whole with the implementation of a series of restriction measures. in January 20217 (stable from December 2020, and up from 6.6% in January 2020). Unemployment in the euro area was 8.1% in On 24 March, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and January 2021 (also stable from December 2020, and up from Control (ECDC) reported more than 24.1 million cases in the 7.4% in January 2020). European Union, with the highest caseloads in France (4,071,662), Italy (3,223,142) and Spain (3,195,062). Worldwide infections EU-related events since the summer 2020 survey: were over 120.2 million and continued to rise.4 At that date, there On 16 September 2020, the President of the European have also been more than 577,300 deaths in the European Union Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivered her first State of and more than 2.6 million deaths worldwide. the Union speech8 where she outlined her vision for the EU and the priorities for the year ahead. She also announced plans to Vaccination campaign reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions, to ensure a successful digital transformation of Europe by 20309 and presented The vaccine campaign, which started at the end of 2020 in the measures to step up action against racism and a new approach European Union, has recently gained momentum. Following the to migration. European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) positive assessment of their On 14 October, the European Commission presented a series safety and efficacy, the European Commission has so far given of new policies on energy policy to help build a climate neutral four conditional marketing authorisations for the vaccines Europe10, including actions on renovation of buildings and a developed by BioNTech and Pfizer (the first one, on 21 December strategy to reduce emissions of methane. The Commission also 2020), Moderna, AstraZeneca and most recently Janssen announces a new Chemicals Strategy11, the first step towards Pharmaceutica NV (on 11 March 2021). Overall, the European a zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment. Union has secured up to 2.6 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines so On 27 October, as part of the EU’s efforts to preserve jobs and livelihoods affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the 1 This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line 4 https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of 5 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_1181 independence. 6 https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/ip144_en_1.pdf 2 Also known as Covid-19 or Sars-CoV-2 7 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/portlet_file_entry/2995521/3- 3 However, there are indications that vaccines are effective against these 04032021-AP-EN.pdf/cb6e5dd6-56c2-2196-16b7-baf811b84a4f three variants circulating in the European Union: 8 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_20_1655 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20210311STO 9 “Europe’s Digital decade” 99733/covid-19-variants-state-of-play-and-impact-on-vaccination-in- 10 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/mex_20_1901 the-eu 11 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_1839 5 Standard Eurobarometer 94 Winter 2020 - 2021 European Commission distributed €17 billion to Italy, Spain decided to impose restrictive measures on four Russian and Poland under the Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks individuals responsible for serious human rights violations and in an Emergency (SURE) programme. SURE can provide up to involved in Navalny’s arbitrary arrest. €100 billion in financial support to all Member States. Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: on 27 September 2020, On 11 November, the European Commission took the first fighting broke out between Azerbaijani forces and those of steps towards building a European Health Union with proposals Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave with an Armenian majority that to strengthen the EU's health security framework and to has been disputed for decades. After six weeks of fighting (and reinforce the crisis preparedness and response role of key EU more than 5,000 dead), a ceasefire was signed in November agencies. which consecrated Azerbaijan's victory. : on 1 February 2021, a coup was Elections in the EU since the summer 2020 survey: Myanmar (Burma) perpetrated by military forces which proclaimed a year-long state of emergency and declared the transfer of power to the The period was marked by major elections in Lithuania, Romania, Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. and Portugal. On 1 October 2020, Alexander De Croo was sworn as the new Terrorist attacks: Belgian Prime minister following negotiations initiated after On 4 October 2020, in Dresden, Germany, one person was the 26 May 2019 general elections.

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