Plenary Insights – December 2023 

Each plenary session, DG COMM provides public opinion data on key topics on the agenda:

• Award of Sakharov Prize: The EP’s new Autumn 2023 Eurobarometer survey finds that democracy continues to be seen as the main value to be defended by the EP (38%). It is the most mentioned answer in 14 EU countries. The protection of human rights in the EU and worldwide, and freedom of speech and thought rank jointly second at 27%.
• Preparation of European Council meeting: 53% of Europeans agree that, in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU should speed up its efforts to let new countries join the EU. Compared to spring 2022, when this question was first asked a few weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, agreement has decreased by 5 points at EU level. (EP Autumn 2023 Eurobarometer survey)
• European elections 2024: A clear majority of Europeans are interested in the next European elections (57%), and around two-thirds (68%) say they would be likely to vote if the elections were held next week. Importantly, citizens appear to be more interested, more likely to vote, and more knowledgeable about the correct date of the next European elections than in September 2018, i.e. at a similar point in time before the last European elections held in May 2019. (EP Autumn 2023 Eurobarometer survey) Almost eight in ten respondents (78%) are concerned about disinformation influencing people’s voting decisions, and around seven in ten (72%) are concerned about elections being manipulated through cyberattacks. (Eurobarometer survey on citizenship and democracy) More than two-thirds of EU citizens are in favour of the process for electing the President of the European Commission through the choice of lead candidates. (Eurobarometer survey on the Future of Europe
• EU relations with China and the US: When asked whether things are going in the right direction in the two countries, people appear to be slightly worried about the developments in the US and considerably worried about the course of China. 81% of EU citizens find it important to build partnerships with global actors like the US to reduce dependencies from countries like China and Russia. (Eurobarometer survey on EU challenges and priorities in 2023)