The Eurobarometer presented by the European Parliament shows that 49% of Europeans interviewed felt that Parliament should focus first on the fight against poverty and social inclusion. The survey also found that 40% of Europeans would like to receive more information from the European Parliament on possible ways to tackle the crisis.

A new Parlemeter (Eurobarometer survey published by the European Parliament) which reviews the perception of Europeans on the European Parliament, policies and values they wish to see promoted and defended has been published at the mid-term 2009-2014. Europeans were asked about their perceptions of the European Parliament and about the policies and values that they want it to defend. 26,594 European citizens aged 15 and over were interviewed.

The main findings of this analysis are that Europeans want to see promoted by the European Parliament, tackling poverty and social exclusion remains the first concern. With regard to the current crisis situation, it is the coordination of the economic, budgetary and fiscal policies that ranks second with a sharp increase of responses within the euro zone (37%). In this context of crisis, the image of the European Parliament does not evolve positively. Neither does the image of the other European institutions, the parliaments and the national governments.

Concerning values, the protection of Human Rights comes in first position (56%), followed by the gender equity man/woman (33%) and of the freedom of expression (32%). Human Rights was as well at the top position on the February 2011 survey. As for the role that respondents attributed to the European Parliament, there is large augmentation of those who want it to play a similar role. On the contrary, as for those who want the European Parliament to play either a more important or a less important role, they are decreasing.