The FINANCIAL — Countries immediately to the East of Europe are more supportive of EU policies, and are more likely to believe good things will come from EU cooperation, than those to the south. These neighbors may differ in their overall support for the EU, but they generally agree on the relative importance of particular policies. Where the regions disagree the most, however, is how European aid money should be spent.
Georgian Opinion Research Business International and TNS opinion just finished the most recent wave of the EU Neighborhood barometer, funded by the EU, which polls all the countries in the EU’s immediate area. GORBI was specifically responsible for asking people in Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and the three Caucasian countries about their attitudes toward the EU, their own countries’ situations, and their general predictions for the future. For this project these countries are collectively known as the ENPI East, those in Northern Africa and the Middle East compose the ENPI South.
Included in this survey were several questions about how the EU has affected respondents’ home countries. These questions examined attitudes on EU policies, areas of cooperation, and idealfoci for aid.
Current Situations — Eastern countries felt that current EU policies in every category were a little more helpful than their southern peers, but both groups ranked the categories in the same order. Trade policy topped the list at 30% in the East and 26% in the South. This was followed closely by tourism and general economic development, both of which were more frequently mentioned in the East. In fourth place is the only benefit not based squarely in money: democracy.
We also asked which areas of cooperation are the most important for respondents’ countries. This question differs in that it focuses on actual interaction between home countries and the EU, rather than EU policies in general.
Here the East and South differ slightly on the order of importance for each area. They both placed peace and security as their most important area of cooperation, which almost half of the East and 40% of the South mentioned. The East ranked poverty relief as their second choice (44%), while the South felt that trade was more important (36%). The East also felt that democracy and good governance were important enough to make the top 5 (33%), which the south replaced with Employment (19%).
Ideal Situations — This last question differs in two ways: first,this question focuses on aid, not policy in general; second and more importantly, it’s normative. We’re asking respondents how they’d like to see money spent rather than their attitudes toward current policy.
Perhaps it’s the normative phrasing that led the South and East to differ so much in their ranking. For the South, peace and security were much more frequently mentioned than any other topic (31%), while the Eastern countries placed it second (28%) after tackling poverty (32%). Poverty still made the South’s list, but it tied trade with only an 18% mention. Employment and human rights made the list for both regions, but the East placed human rights third, while the south chose trade for that spot.
After looking at all these data it seems that the relative importance of each area of involvement is dictated more by the EU, even if the level of appreciation differs. Whether these attitudesreflect marketing or reality, it shows that the EU decides where money goes. Countries’ individual preferences show much more when asked their ideal organization of funding.
In the last column I promised to discuss how EU and UN development money related to trust in their capabilities, but data on their spending has proven harder to come by than for the US. The hunt will continue, and data will be published as soon as I it’s found. Visit our website at gorbi.com for more articles.
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