Three in four Estonian citizens feel citizens of EU

Photo: Elmo Riig / Sakala

Of Estonian citizens 73 percent feel overwhelmingly as citizens of the European Union, which is a higher ratio than the EU average of 63 percent, it appears from a Eurobarometer survey taken in November.

In Latvia 57 percent of citizens and in Lithuania 64 percent feel citizens of the EU.

"One rather feels citizen of the EU living by the Baltic Sea, less by the Mediterranean. Considering Estonia's recent accession this is a surprising percentage," Hannes Rumm, head of the representation of the European Commission in Estonia, said at the presentation of the survey on Friday. "In Latvia trust in institutions declined domestically during the crisis and trust in Europe together with it. In Estonia domestic trust and trust in Europe are less linked together."

Of Estonian citizens 24 percent expect improvement of the quality of life from the EU. Those expecting equality, justice and peace made up 15 percent and those expecting improvement in the employment situation 10 percent.

Eleven percent believe they are informed about their rights and obligations very well and 48 percent that they are informed more or less. The respective EU average ratios were 9 percent and 36 percent.

The ratio is higher in Estonia also of those respondents who wish to get to know more about medical services, working and living in other member states, being 30 percent in Estonia and 22 percent in the EU on average.

Of Estonian citizens 45 percent have been to another EU member state, compared to the EU average of 41 percent.

Estonia ranks eighth among EU member states by the openness index, scoring 28 percent compared to the EU average of 13 percent. The index looks at data for travel, reading of books in another language, communicating with citizens of another country, watching television in another language and making purchases from another country over the internet. The indicator on watching television in another language had a strong effect on the outcome for Estonia.

Of respondents in Estonia one percent believe they are very well informed about matters of the EU, compared to 2 percent in the EU on average. Those believing that they are rather well infomed made up 38 percent in Estonia and 29 percent in the EU27. Information about the EU is obtained mainly from television and the internet, with the share of respondents naming television declining in comparison with 2011.

Almost 30,000 citizens of Europe were interviewed for the survey in the EU27, of them 1,003 in Estonia.