Europos Sąjungos piliečių pasitikėjimo Europos Parlamentu ir Komisija analizė

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the reliance in different EU institutions - the Parliament and the Commission - of 25 member countries citizens. The reliance in institutions can be defined as a belief found in society, that institution answers citizens’ expectations. The reliance in the Community and policy it implements differs from the desirable. Citizens expect active, public, transparent Community, in which could be felt tangible results of policy, based on cooperation, compromises and taking into account all interests. In recent years, the reliance in the EU is 48 %, meanwhile 52 % of member countries citizens expressed their reliance in the European Parliament, 47 % - in the European Commission. From the survey a conclusion can be drawn, that younger, better educated, subjectively well ranking their knowledge about the Community respondents, rely more in the EU. The European Parliament is the institution that gains the biggest reliance, because it is the best known. The presumption can be done, that citizens tend to rely in the Parliament, because it is the only elective institution in the EU or because of its power to control direct and indirect work of the European Council, the Commission and other institutions of the EU. The European Commission gains its trust, because it has more and various powers in comparison with other EU institutions. The presumption can be done, that it is relied as a guardian of the Community or as ,,a power of integration”, than the privilege of initiative is used. Respondents, who find their countries membership in the EU as beneficial, tend to rely more in it and its institutions. The EU citizens are less interested in European politics and know less about European institutions (in comparison with national politics and nationals institutions), so they trust them more. While citizens can find more information about national politics and mostly attitude is critical or negative. 71 % of the EU citizens take view that institutions of the Community face problem of corruption. Such attitude can be considered as one of the reasons people distrusts the Community and its institutions. As the main reasons, why the European Commission gains such a low reliance, can be named: order of commissioners’ nomination, their irresponsibility and insufficient control of their activity. The European Parliament faces accusations in wasting resources when it moves to second seat every month, insufficient activity of Euro parliamentarians, different interests and collision between old and new member countries, image of not influential institution (while it is the only directly representing the EU citizens). All these factors can be named as core reasons of low reliance in the European Parliament.