By Brian Johnson - 29th April 2005
Almost half of Europe’s citizens want stricter environmental legislation but less than one in ten are willing to pay eco-taxes or higher prices, finds official EU polling.
A European Commission Eurobarometer survey, published on Friday, looked at the environmental attitudes of 25,000 EU citizens.
Forty six per cent of respondents felt that the most effective solution for solving environmental problems was to make national or EU regulations stricter with heavy fines for offenders.
The strong signal may not go down well in some European Commission departments in Brussels.
Brussels policy chiefs and a number of EU capitals have been campaigning to lessen the influence of environmental legislation, in an attempt to kick start Europe’s flagging economy.
Commission President José Manuel Barroso has placed economic prosperity at the heart of EU priorities, and has hinted that social and environmental legislation may have to fall by the wayside, in the pursuit of a more competitive agenda.
Only seven per cent of those surveyed believed that paying more taxes, or increasing prices to cover environmental costs was a good idea.
Europe’s citizens feel uninformed on two of the most hotly debated issues in the current Brussels spotlight, chemicals and GMOs.
Four out of ten Europeans feel ignorant about the impact on health of chemicals in everyday products, despite efforts by the EU institutions to widen the debate on the draft REACH chemicals legislation.
The GM approvals debate which has raged in Brussels since the EU lifted its six year ‘moratorium’ last year seems to have passed EU citizens by, with 40 per cent saying the feel uninformed on the subject.
Almost half of citizens in the EU 25 feel generally badly or very badly informed on environmental issues.
But there are wide differences when broken down by member state. Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, Finland and Sweden feel the most informed, as do Slovenia and Cyprus.
The most poorly informed citizens are in Portugal and Lithuania, with only a third feeling well informed.
The EU made only eighth place on a list of institutions and actors that could be trusted on environmental issues, receiving just twelve per cent of Europeans votes.
Top of the trust stakes were environmental NGOs and pressure groups, with 42 per cent followed by scientists (32 per cent) and television (27 per cent).
Only one in fifty respondents believed that they could trust industry’s view on the environment.
Climate change and air pollution, the subject of this year’s Green Week activities in Brussels in June, topped the bill of issues that citizens are most concerned about, alongside water pollution and man made disasters.
The urban environment, traffic jams, lack of green spaces, increased air traffic and noise pollution were of least concern.
Environment chief Stavros Dimas said the survey was proof that European citizens cared about their environment.
And the Greek commissioner used the findings to strengthen his position on the ‘competitiveness’ of environmental polices.
“The Eurobarometer findings also confirm that the public shares the commission’s conviction that a strong environmental policy can be an engine for innovation and growth,” said Dimas.
A position echoed by Martin Rocholl of Friends of the Earth.
"This is an important survey that Europe's leaders must take heed of. It shows that the current obsession in Brussels of putting the economy above social and environmental factors is wrong, commented,” he said.
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