Plenary Insights – February 2025 

Each plenary session, DG COMM assembles public opinion data related to key agenda topics:

• Three years of Russia’s war of aggression: By standing against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU is defending European values - 74% of EU citizens agree with this statement. 73% say that Russia’s invasion is a threat to their own country's security. (EC Standard Eurobarometer - Autumn 2024)
• Competitiveness Compass: Reducing excessive dependencies and increasing security, decarbonisation and competitiveness, and closing the innovation gap - the EC Standard Eurobarometer - Autumn 2024 shows that the core areas of the Competitiveness Compass are also central to the citizens’ priorities for the EU in the next five years. Security tops the current list of medium-term priorities, with 33% of people putting it in their top three policy issues.
• New trade era - multilateral cooperation or tariffs: Around three in four European citizens agree that the EU is more effective to defend trade interests of its Member States around the world than individual Member States when they act on their own. 26% of citizens generally agree with the statement that the EU should raise tariffs on imported goods so as to protect EU industries and jobs, and an additional 31% think that the EU should increase import duties only if other countries raise their import duties on EU exports. On the other hand, 37% of Europeans are against raising import tariffs - either in general or if provoked. (Eurobarometer survey on Europeans' attitudes on trade and EU trade policy).
• EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement: Close to one in four (23%) EU citizens agree trade agreements strengthen the EU’s position in the world as an economic power, 22% think that they benefit businesses more than consumers and workers, while one in five (19%) believe they help to create jobs in the EU and bring more choice and lower prices for consumers and businesses. (Eurobarometer survey on Europeans' attitudes on trade and EU trade policy) Nearly nine in ten Europeans (88%) agree that agricultural imports of any origin should only enter the EU if their production has complied with the EU's environmental, animal welfare and labour standards. (Eurobarometer survey on Europeans, Agriculture and the CAP)