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EU citizens are officially happy: poll
2007-02-27
European Union citizens are overwhelmingly happy with life -- and that's official. A pan-European opinion poll conducted for the European Commission and published on Monday showed that 87 percent of EU citizens considered themselves happy, with a record 97 percent in Denmark. Only in Bulgaria, which joined the bloc in January, did a majority of people (55 percent) say they were unhappy. But the Eurobarometer survey on "European social reality," conducted between mid-November and mid-December, found far lower satisfaction levels with retirement and employment prospects. And two-thirds of the 26,755 Europeans questioned think life will be more difficult for the next generation because of unemployment, the cost of living and uncertain pensions. Citizens of Germany, Europe's biggest and most powerful economy, have the least confidence in the future of their pensions, with only 25 percent voicing confidence. Fewer than one-third of French, Poles and Hungarians trust their pensions. On the other hand, nearly three-quarters of Danes feel their pension is safe, while two-thirds of Finns and Dutch agree. Britain, Spain, Cyprus and Italy were in the middle with roughly half of respondents confident in their pensions. Almost half of Europeans said they were dissatisfied with local job opportunities, and 41 percent said their work was too demanding and stressful. Stress levels were highest at about 70 percent in Lithuania, Greece and Romania and lowest at around 25 percent in the Netherlands and Finland. The survey found low trust in national political institutions and high levels of political indifference across Europe. While overwhelming majorities said health, family, friends, leisure and work were important to them, only 43 percent rated politics and 52 percent religion as counting in their lives. Only local councils scored positive trust figures, while 73 percent of EU citizens distrusted political parties, 62 percent didn't trust their national government and 61 percent tended not to trust their national parliament. Respondents were not asked whether they trusted the EU. Most Europeans think their personal situation will either improve (41 percent) or stay the same (40 percent) in the next five years, with young people the most optimistic and over-55s the most gloomy. Estonians are the EU's chief optimists, while Hungarians are by far the biggest pessimists.
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