Europeans on the whole are not concerned about immigration but Malta is the exception, emerging as the “most worried” member state even though the influx from Libya has recently been stemmed, according to the latest EU survey.
Just six per cent of EU citizens identified immigration as a problem for EU-Africa relations, contrasting with 18 per cent of the Maltese.
“Since Malta is on the periphery and closer to Africa than other member states it is almost obvious that the Maltese are much more concerned than other EU citizens,” an EU official told The Times yesterday.
“However, since the problem has almost stopped, at least temporarily, we thought the issue had been ‘forgotten’ somewhat. It seems we were wrong according to the survey results.”
The Eurobarometer survey, coordinated in Malta by Misco, was conducted among 500 people last June and its results were made public yesterday in view of an EU-Africa summit to be held in Tripoli on Monday.
Asked whether they thought EU-Africa relations would become more important in the coming years, the majority of Maltese interviewed, 30 per cent said, said they would. On the other hand only six per cent felt relations between the two blocs would diminish in importance.
The survey also shows that the majority of Maltese mostly associate Africa with nature: 25 per cent identified “natural beauty and landscapes” as the most positive thing they associate with Africa, followed by 22 per cent who choose “wildlife”. Nineteen per cent identified “arts, culture and music”.
On a general level, the survey shows that 34 per cent of Europeans think Africa will become a more important partner for Europe over the next decade while 42 per cent believe the relationship will remain the same.
The results vary significantly between the EU countries.
In Sweden, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Slovenia and Portugal most respondents think Africa’s importance as a partner will increase. Lack of information remains a challenge in the whole of Europe as almost 15 per cent of the public do not have a precise opinion about the EU-Africa relationship.
Since the EU-Africa Summit in 2007, the focus of relations has moved from a simple donor-recipient approach towards a true partnership where problems are tackled together, reflecting the interests of both parties.