'The European Commission yesterday announced the results from the latest Eurobarometer poll – carried out in May during the height of the crisis – with a press release carrying the headline, “EU citizens favour stronger European economic governance”. 75 percent of Europeans, we are told by the press release, are in favour of giving the EU a stronger role in the coordination of member states’ economic and budgetary policies.EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding – who also is in charge of Communication – commented:
The clear majority for enhanced European economic governance shows that people see the EU as a decisive part of the solution to the crisis.
Clearly, something fishy is going on here, not least since such overwhelming support for EU action is conspicously absent from the rest of the poll (26 percent of people say that they consider the EU best placed to deal with the financial and economic crisis, for example).
And sure enough, the Commission is trying to take us for a ride.
Respondents to the Eurobarometer survey were only asked whether or not “a stronger coordination of economic and financial policies among all EU member states” would be effective to combat the ongoing crisis (see p. 38 here). The question doesn’t even mention the role of the EU or the term “European economic governance”. Creatively, the Commission then adds up the respondents who think that stronger coordination would be “very effective” (26 percent) and those who only find it “fairly effective” (49 percent) to reach the 75 percent figure.
Seriously, how stupid do they think we are? By no stretch of the imagination is this the same as 75 percent of Europeans being in favour of giving the EU more powers to monitor national economies, which the Commission is trying to make us believe in its press release.' Sic.
Matts Persson.
