Eurobarometer 
The EP and the expectations of European citizens 
 
 

Plenary Insights – July 2021 

Each plenary session, DG Communication provides public opinion data on key topics on the agenda. For the plenary session of July 2021, relevant survey data is available on:

  • Breaches of EU law and of the rights of LGBTIQ citizens in Hungary: Over half of EU citizens (53%) say discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is widespread in their country, according to a Special Eurobarometer on Discrimination in the EU from May 2019. Another survey conducted by the EU’s Agency for Fundamental rights show that LGBTIQ people across the EU believe that law and policy, as well as behaviour by politicians and other public figures greatly affect their lives.
  • Presentation of the programme of activities of the Slovenian Presidency: According to the European Commission’s Standard Eurobarometer 94, a majority of Europeans believes that the EU 750 billion euro recovery plan, NextGenerationEU, will be effective in responding to the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic (55%).
  • European Medicine Agency: Ensuring rapid access to safe and effective vaccines for all EU citizens (39%), investing more money to develop treatments and vaccines (29%) and establishing a European strategy for facing a similar crisis in the future (28%) - these should be the EU’s top priorities in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the eyes of citizens - as revealed by the EP’s spring Eurobarometer.
  • Conditionality for the protection of the Union budget: EU money only if governments respect rule of law, believe more than three quarters of EU citizens (77) - according to the EP’s third special survey on European citizens’ attitudes and opinions over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic (October 2020).
  • Annual Report on the Functioning of the Schengen Area: The Schengen Area is one of the EU’s main achievements, say 68% of European citizens according to a 2018 Eurobarometer on Europeans’ perceptions of the Schengen Area. A survey on “What Europeans Want from the European Union” conducted by eupinions in December 2020 confirms this popularity of freedom of movement: Nearly three quarters (74%) of respondents say that the EU ‘would not be worth having’ without it.
  • Citizens’ dialogues and Citizens’ participation in the EU decision-making: A Special Eurobarometer on the Future of Europe finds that a very large majority of Europeans (92%) agree that EU citizens’ voices should be taken more into account for decisions relating to the future of Europe.
  • EU global human rights sanctions regime (EU Magnitsky Act): The EP’s last Parlemeter published February 2021 finds that the EP should defend human rights worldwide as a matter of priority.