Eurobarometer: Overall support for more euro area economic policy coordination

Percentage who see the euro as good for their own country fell back to the medium term trend of recent years

A majority of 56% of respondents across the euro area said that they thought the euro was good for their own country. This is a drop by five percentage points compared to last year. Overall support is now back to the medium term trend of recent years.

Support for the euro was highest in Ireland at 81%, followed by Luxembourg at 74%.  

Ireland also saw the biggest rise in support (+6 pps.), followed by the Netherlands (+4pps.). In Latvia, the euro area’s second most recent Member, support for the euro rose (+ 2pps.) to 56%. Also Malta and Finland saw an increase by two percentage points.

The percentage of respondents who said that the euro was good for their country fell most in Lithuania (-13 percentage points to 42%) and Cyprus (- 10 pps. to 40%). Support also fell in Italy to 41% (-8 pps.) and Greece to 54% (-11 pps.)

A majority of 67% of respondents across the euro area sees the euro as good for the EU. While a clear majority of respondents in every country agrees, there are nevertheless important differences between the 19 countries.

Majority of euro area citizens continue to support economic reforms …

Asked again about their views on economic reforms, 78% of respondents across the euro area said that they saw the need for significant reforms to improve the performance of the economy. Far fewer respondents, 39% (- 3 pps.) agreed that successful reforms in other euro area countries facilitated reforms in their own country. Highest support for this view was held in Ireland 63%, while in Greece only 28% agreed to that, and 36% in Germany.  Similarly, 76% of respondents across the euro area agreed that governments needed to save more now so as to prepare public finances for population ageing.

A clear majority of citizens support reforms to increase growth and employment. Agreement ranges from 92% in favour of health systems, 91% for labour market reforms, 89% for pension systems, to 79% for taxation.

… and favour more economic policy coordination

Asked about economic policy coordination among euro area Member States, 46% of respondents thought that  coordination had been weakened in recent years, or remained unchanged (22%), and  a majority of  67% ( - 3 pps) said they favoured more coordination.

Growing majority favour replacing one- and two-cent coins with rounding of the final purchase price

While a majority of 63% of respondents across the euro area said there was just the right amount of euro coins, a majority of 62% (+ 3 pps) said they were in favour of abolishing one- and two-euro cent coins through mandatory rounding (up or down) of the final sum of purchases in shops and supermarkets to the nearest five cents. Highest support for that was expressed in Finland with 85%, while 50% of citizens in Latvia are against (47% in favour), 48% in Portugal are against (47% in favour). 

Background

Citizens replied to a set of questions focusing on issues ranging from perception and practical aspects of the euro to their assessment of the economic situation, policy and reforms in their country and in the euro area. In addition, citizens were asked about their views and expectations regarding household income and inflation.

Some 17 500 respondents across the 19 euro area countries were interviewed by phone on 17 – 18 October 2016.

Documents

Flash Eurobarometer 446(10 MB)  

Flash Eurobarometer. Summary