Free Movement Hailed As The Most Positive Achievement Of The EU
A recent Eurobarometer poll with 31,946 respondents from all 28 European Union member states has shown a massive support for free movement of people, goods and services within the union. Even in the United Kingdom there appears to be a clear majority of 63% supporting free movement, making the on-going Brexit negotiations even more challenging.
While the support for free movement in the UK pales in comparison to the 95% of Latvians supporting it, it is still a surprising number considering that many commentators and politicians have interpreted the narrow UK rejection of the EU as a protest against free movement specifically.
The poll by Eurobarometer tracks the position of the citizens in the European Union member states as regards a large number of policy areas. Some of the less surprising results are that immigration and terrorism are considered the two most important concerns facing the EU with 48% and 39% respectively selecting those responses.
On a final note, in the wake of the Brexit, Nigel Farage was quick to “out” Denmark as the next potential country exiting the union. The Eurobarometer poll, however, tends to indicate otherwise. While a majority (53%) of Brits did not feel as citizens of the European Union when the poll was conducted in May 2016, Denmark seems to be one of the most EU-positive countries when it comes to citizenship, as a massive 77% of Danes felt like EU citizens, and only 22% did not.
The preliminary results of the Standard Eurometer poll can be found here together with a press release by the European Commission.
