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– EuroArmy...For Peace or
War?
Public Support for EU Security Policy
Grows, View of U.S. Dims
By BROOKS TIGNER, BRUSSELS
Public support across the European Union for a common defense and
security stance has risen strongly in the past six months and now stands
at 78 percent of the union’s population of 456 million. But Europeans’
view of the United States as a positive force for world peace and
effective counter-terrorism continues to deteriorate.
An overwhelming majority of EU citizens support the idea of a common
European security and defense policy (ESDP), according to the latest
survey of public opinion by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency. In a
month-long poll ending Nov. 8 of approximately 25,000 people across the
25 EU countries, 78 percent said they supported ESDP — up 5 percentage
points from spring 2004. Support was highest in Belgium, Germany,
Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia — at 85 percent or higher in each — and
lowest in Ireland, Malta and Sweden. Overall, the survey shows the
strongest display of public enthusiasm for ESDP in the union in 10
years, notes Eurostat.
General support across the EU for a common foreign policy was somewhat
lower at 69 percent, but 3 percentage points higher than in the spring.
At 47 percent of its population, Britain was the only country where
public support for a common EU foreign policy was below 50 percent. It
was joined at the bottom of the scale by Malta (50 percent) and Sweden
(52 percent). Support in Belgium, Germany, Greece and Slovenia was
highest at 80 percent or more of their populations.
Elsewhere, European perception of the United States as an obstacle to
world peace continues to grow.
The number of Europeans who assign a positive peace-making role to the
country has declined from 32 percent in autumn 2002 to just 22 percent
today. The number who think America exerts a negative influence on world
peace has risen five percentage points in the last year alone from 53
percent in November 2003 to 58 percent today. The EU countries most
critical of U.S. policy in this respect are Belgium, Cyprus, France,
Greece and Turkey.
Finally, in the fight against terrorism, 42 percent of the EU public
believes the United States is playing a negative role — up 5 percent
from a year ago.
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