Majority of Greeks say EU moving in wrong direction, survey finds
The majority of Greeks claim that membership of the European Union has benefited their country but they also believe the 28-member bloc is moving in the wrong direction, according to a public survey released ahead of Sunday’s European Parliament elections.
According to the MRB poll which was commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, 64.1 percent of respondents said that EU membership certainly or probably benefited Greece, while 33.4 said joining the bloc certainly or probably did not benefit the country.
Meanwhile, 60 percent of respondents said that the EU was certainly or probably moving in the wrong direction, over 33.4 percent who remained optimistic about the outlook of the European unification project.
The same poll also found relatively low levels of trust in the EU. Only 28.8 percent of Greeks said they trust the bloc, while trust scores for the European Parliament and the European Central Bank (ECB) were at 25.5 and 20 percent respectively. People’s trust in the ECB was only stronger to that in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Among the institutions that are more trusted by Greeks, according to the poll, were the family, the armed forces, the Church, universities and the police.
Asked about the EU common currency, 35.7 percent said they remained loyal to the euro, while 43.7 said they felt trapped in the single currency. A bit over 10 percent said that Greece should ditch the euro.
The survey was carried out between May 10-15 on a sample of 1001 people across Greece.
Greece joined the then-European Economic Community (EEC) in 1981.
