Brussels, Sept. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - Most Portuguese polled by the European Parliament (EP) believe that the European Union (EU) should protect citizens more in the coming years, but 60% are not aware of the long-term budget, according to the Eurobarometer.
According to the EP's statistical initiative, released today, 80% of national citizens surveyed believe that in the coming years the EU will play a "more important" role in protecting the citizens of the 27 countries of the European political-economic bloc and its presence on the international geopolitical scene.
The percentage of Portuguese who believe that the EU will play a more important role on the "world stage" and in the security of its citizens is above the average of the 27 nations (68%).
Only 10% of Portuguese think that everything will stay the same and 5% think that the EU bloc's role will be "less important".
Of the c itizens of Portugal who took part in this inquiry, 38% believe that competitiveness, the economy and industry should be the EU's priority, although this figure has dropped by three percentage points. This concern is slightly above the European average (32%).
Defence and security are the second biggest concern for the Portuguese (31%), but still below the European average (37%).
EU enlargement is the topic that least concerns Portuguese citizens (6%).
Of those surveyed in Portugal, 60% answered "yes, probably" when asked if there should be more EU-funded projects in the future.
However, 64% of Portuguese people have not heard anything about the next EU budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework, in line with the EU average (60%).
Of the total respondents, 28% have heard about the EU's long-term budget, "but don't know what it is".
Portugal is perfectly in line with the average for countries in the European Community bloc (30%) when it comes to worrying about the consequences of these long-term budgets for the country.
61% of the Portuguese consider the transparency of the Multiannual Financial Framework to be "very important" and 58% also consider it to be "very important" that there is flexibility in implementation in order to be able to respond to unforeseen events, such as disasters or market fluctuations.
Eurobarometer surveyed 26,410 people, aged 15 and over, in the 27 EU member states, face-to-face (except in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Malta, where the interviews were by videoconference), between 5 and 29 May.
Of this total, 1,030 Portuguese were surveyed.
AFE/ADB // ADB.
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