More than 50% of all Europeans do not know anything about the CAP

Tholen – A figure of 54% in the Eurobarometer elaborated by the EU Commission represents the number of Europeans who never heard about the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the EU. 34% knows that the CAP exists but do not know what it is and only 9% knows what it is. There is also a general ignorance on the agricultural issues at the EU. There is a 46% who considers that they have bad information, 26% do not know anything and only 3% knows something or is relatively well informed.

In contrast to the lack of information on the CAP and agricultural issues, the CAP is the policy that receives more resources at the EU level. Thus, the question on the Eurobarometer also qualified the perception of the Europeans with respect to the budget at the CAP. For a 45% of the respondents the budget was adequate, 16% said it is “too high”, 15% “insufficient” and 34% did not know or did not answer. The perception of the respondents on the functions of the CAP addresses to the function of production of healty products (41%), better life conditions for farmers (37%) and reasonable prices for consumers (35%). The Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel declared that the results of this Eurobarometer showed that there is a lot to do in the instruction of Europeans in communitarian issues, particularly agriculture and that should be taken as a priority.

Publication date: March 30 2007
Author: Jahir Lombana
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