A report by the European Parliament (EP), published a year before the upcoming European elections in May 2019, confirm the rise in citizens' support for the EU, the office of the European Parliament in Croatia said on Wednesday.

According to a poll conducted by Eurobarometer in April 2018 which asked more than 27,000 people in all 28 EU member countries about their opinion on the EU, some 60 percent overall said that EU membership is good for their country, with two thirds saying their country had benefited from being part of the bloc. This is the largest support recorded since 1983.

Almost a third said they knew the date for the next European elections, and 50 percent said they are interested in following them. The so-called Spitzenkandidaten process, which involves selecting a candidate for the head of the European Commission representing major political groupings in the EP, is perceived as a positive development for European democracy, and almost half of all those polled said it motivated them to cast their votes, with three quarters saying they wanted the process to include a real debate on European issues and the future of the EU.

Asked about specific topics they are interested in, they said they wanted the debate to talk more about the fight against terrorism (49 percent), followed by youth unemployment (48 percent), immigration (45 percent), and economy (42 percent). Around a third of Europeans listed the fight against climate change and the protection of the environment (35 percent), the promotion of human rights and democracy (32 percent) and the social safety net for European citizens (32 percent).

Most of those polled said they were satisfied with the way democracy works in their country (55 percent) and in the EU (46 percent), with half saying they do not see the rise of new parties or political movements as a threat to democracy.

Overall, the report said that the results indicates a growing interest for the European Union, as well as the growing belief that citizens can take part in creating their future by voting in European elections.

In Croatia, nearly half of all repondents (49 percent) sad they had a neutral opinion about Croatia’s membership in the European Union, while 36 percent said this is a good thing for the country, down by 7 percentage points from the previous poll in October 2017, and significantly lower than the EU average of 60 percent.

Most Croatians said they thought their voice matters in the EU, but at the same time 46 percent said that things were going badly in the EU, the report said.

As priorities that need to be discussed during the campaign for the upcoming European election, Croatians listed the fight against youth unemployment (68 percent), the economy and its growth (61 percent), the social safety net for EU citizens (48 percent) and consumer rights and food safety (34 percent).

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