EUROBAROMETER – EU Development Aid

The European Commission’s Directorate-General Development and Cooperation – EuropeAid commissioned this survey to measure the attitudes of the European public towards development aid in the European Union. The report covers the 28 Member States.

The report attempts to gauge the views of people in Europe in four main areas:

• Their general awareness of extreme poverty;
• The perceived importance of development aid and of EU aid in the context of the economic crisis;
• The commitment of EU citizens to tackling poverty;
• Their awareness of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and their views on future development policy priorities

This Eurobarometer was carried out by TNS Opinion & Social between 24 May and 9 June 2013. Some 27,680 respondents in the 27 Member States and in Croatia aged 15 or over were interviewed face-to-face by the interviewers of the TNS Opinion & Social network (the interviewers asked the questions in the respondents' home).

Survey’s most significant finding is that support for development aid remains strong throughout Europe, in spite of the tough economic climate. More than six out of ten people think that aid should be increased, while only 18% of respondents argue that aid should be reduced. Support for aid in general varies from country to country, but it is interesting to find that support for the provision of aid remains strong in some countries, notably Spain, which have been affected quite badly by the economic crisis.