Two in Three EU Citizens Favour Letting EU Decide on Migration - Poll

The fastest-growing concerns of the citizens of European Union member states are immigration and terrorism, according to the latest Eurobarometer poll.

While an EU average of 66% of respondents said that more decisions on migration should be taken at EU level, rather than by national governments alone, the survey found marked differences among countries on all issues addressed, the European Parliament said on its website.

Those in favour of more EU decision-making made up between 79% and 81% of respondents from Cyprus, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, but only 40% in Estonia, Poland and the Slovak Republic.

Bulgaria is close to the EU average with 65% saying they favour migration issues to be tackled at at EU level.

EU citizens were more widely divided divided on the issue of receiving asylum-seekers. An EU average of 78% of respondents said they should be shared among EU countries.

Germans led the group of those most in favour with at 97%, and while those least in favour were the Slovaks and the Czechs with 31%.

Of the 78% who favoured distributing asylum-seekers among EU countries, 75% also favoured doing so according to binding quotas decided by the EU, the survey showed.

Sixty percent of respondents in Bulgaria said that asylum seekers should be distributed among member states and 74% of them think that the distribution should be made according to mandatory quotas.

Concerns about immigration and terrorism have increased sharply compared to 2013, according to the survey.

Immigration is the greatest challenge facing the EU and its member states for 47% of respondents, up from 14% in 2013. Concerns about terrorism were cited by 26% of respondents, up from 11% in 2013.

Bulgaria is about the EU average with 49% of respondents pointing to immigration as a source of concern in the 2015 survey, a four-fold increase compared to 12% in 2013.

The survey, commissioned by the European Parliament, has sought the opinion of 28,150 Europeans aged over 15. It was conducted between 19 and 29 September, a period when refugee arrivals at EU borders and tragic migrant deaths were being widely reported in the media.

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