Maltese strongest opponents to euro

The Maltese are the strongest opponents to the euro and to the introduction of a common defence, security or foreign policy, a Eurobarometer survey carried out among the candidate states has shown.

Once again, the survey, carried out between June and July, shows that the Maltese remain the most sceptic to the bloc's policies.

A total of 72 per cent of all respondents to the survey support the idea of replacing the national currencies with the euro.

But just 47 per cent of the Maltese support the introduction of the currency, 41 per cent oppose it, with the rest saying they were undecided. The biggest supporters of the euro were the Slovenians, with a high of 87 per cent.

Eighty-four per cent of the acceding countries are in favour of a defence and security policy among EU member states. Support is most widespread in Cyprus (93 per cent) while opposition is greatest in Malta (23 per cent).

Of all the candidate countries, 47 per cent of citizens would trust the EU the most in European defence issues generally.

"Only in Malta, with its heroic military history, would most citizens prefer to have their government deciding on defence issues (47 per cent)," the survey comments.

A total 45 per cent of the Maltese believe the US has a positive role in maintaining world peace, compared with 34 per cent of European citizens. And 79 per cent of the Maltese believe the EU is more instrumental in keeping peace, compared with the European average of 67 per cent.

Seventy-four per cent of the 10 acceding countries' respondents support a common foreign policy in relation to other countries. Support is greatest in Cyprus (87 per cent) while opposition once again is strongest in Malta (25 per cent).

Sixty-nine per cent of the Maltese support the idea of having a European foreign minister, with just 11 per cent disagreeing.

Nine out of 10 Cypriots support a common defence policy with the Maltese placing bottom in support.

With the exception of the Turkish and Maltese respondents, the majority of the candidate countries prefer joint EU decision-making to national decision-making in defence policy. The highest drop in a common defence policy support (compared to the spring survey) was in Malta - a reduction of six per cent.

A European army is most popular in Cyprus (91 per cent) but not very attractive to the Maltese - where just 46 per cent are in favour, with 43 per cent against - a figure which exceeds by more than double the closest opponent to the army.

Sixty-six per cent of candidate citizens are in favour of the EU being responsible for matters that cannot be effectively handled by national, regional and local governments.

"The once sceptical Maltese are those where approval increased the most (+11 per cent)," the survey says.

Almost eight in 10 future EU citizens are in favour of the enlargement of the EU to include new countries, the most widespread support coming from Slovenia (86 per cent) and on the other end of the scale opposition coming strongest from Malta (16 per cent).

A total of 85 per cent are in favour of teaching schoolchildren about the way the EU institutions work, with the highest increase since the last survey being registered in Malta.

According to a large proportion who called it a priority, people are interested in fighting poverty and exclusion, especially Cypriots (95 per cent) and Maltese (94 per cent).

Peace and security maintenance is a priority to a very high proportion of Cypriots (99 per cent), Slovakians and Maltese (both 94 per cent).