Burgers verwachten meer van EU in toekomst dan politici (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU citizens are more ambitious about what Europe should do in the future than its political leaders, a new report summing up a series of popular debates shows.

The debates with EU citizens were carried out across the bloc following the shock rejection of the draft EU constitution in both France and the Netherlands two years ago - an event that was interpreted as a clear signal of the gap between the bloc's citizens and its institutions.

The report, published on Thursday (10 May), refers to the main conclusions of all national debates and shows that citizens in most countries favour action in social policy where Europe does not hold key powers and which is generally not foreseen as an area for major future initiatives.

"We believe that improving the social and economic conditions for families should be a European policy goal, because most of our panels think families in Europe need better protection and support, and the problem of low birth rates is apparent," stated the document.

Many panels suggested specific measures both at national and European level to address issues such as improved availability of rights to child care, working time flexibility for parents or job protection for those returning from parental leave.

Another important subject on the citizens' wish-list is better job protection. People in central and eastern European member states in particular are calling for harmonised minimum work-related standards, such as a common definition of a minimum wage.

Similarly, a majority of participants in the debates - altogether attended by 1,800 randomly selected people - expect the EU to "set standards ensuring accessible, dignified, high-quality and affordable" health care treatment.

When asked how to achieve this goal, the Irish and Greeks suggested open competition of health services, the Dutch, Italians and Cypriots stressed the need for cross-border access to patients while the Danes and Portuguese favour the idea of free health services across Europe.

Citizens from several countries can also imagine much more uniform action and standards in education, saying that qualifications could be determined at EU level, while the specific content for comparable and compatible degrees would be dealt with at national and regional levels.

There was also broad agreement that "the resulting education system" should be free and accessible to all.

High political goals

In terms of a common European foreign policy, citizens desire that the EU takes on an active role in protecting and promoting peace, democracy, human rights and justice in the world.

They argue the bloc should use both peacekeeping forces and its diplomacy to provide a strong role model across the world in this field, with the French panellists adding the EU could "be a force capable of providing a counterbalance to the trend towards a unipolar world dominated by the US."

Only the French citizens favour future European cooperation in defence policy, according to the report, while most other countries highlight foreign and security areas for joint EU action.

On the other hand, only the German panel specifically supported the idea of a European foreign minister - included in the set of institutional changes proposed by the disputed EU constitution - and it also called for a shared EU seat in the UN's security council.

Finally, citizens also broadly favour a pan-European response to immigration and tackling the integration of immigrants, as well as "a greater use of external relations policy tools such as development aid and border controls."

The EU should also "be given stronger powers to develop a common energy policy and ensure that member states live up to the commitments they have made at European level," according to the summary report.

The results come just weeks before EU leaders are to gather in Brussels to try and hammer out the bones of a new treaty for the bloc.