PES Manifesto

More global responsibility, please!

Published Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 10:32
by Editor (1293 views and 0 comments)

Almost 90 percent of Europeans want the European Union to play a bigger role globally, according to a recent poll by the US German Marshall Fund. euobserver.com repeat that citizens call for more money to developmental aid (84 %), the use of trade to influence other countries (74 %) and sending troops for peace-keeping missions (68 %).

Committing troops to combat missions is near the bottom of the list. Only 20 percent of Europeans thinks combat operations should be EU’s responsibility.

In contrast to the clear-cut conclusions on global responsibility the question about collaboration with the US splits Europe in two: a little more than half, 53 percent, feels that the EU should cooperate closer with Washington in dealing with global threats, whereas 43 percent prefers Europe to address threats independently.

The survey included about 13.000 people of 12 nationalities: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the UK.

Tags: aid, conflict, defence, development, globalization, human rights, peace, poverty, security