Belgians are more pessimistic about the future of the world than the European average, but tend to be optimistic about the future of the EU and Belgium, according to an opinion poll commissioned by the European Parliament.
According to the latest Eurobarometer, 69% of Belgians are fairly or very pessimistic about the future of the world, compared with 58% across the EU as a whole. In the previous survey in November, 65% were still pessimistic.
The new survey was conducted in March and April of this year, against a backdrop of economic and political tensions caused, among other things, by the war in the Middle East and the resulting energy crisis, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Across the EU as a whole, pessimism about the future of the world has increased by six percentage points.
Belgians are more positive about the future of their own country and the European Union: 60% of respondents in each case say they are optimistic, an increase compared with November of 9 percentage points for the EU and 8 percentage points for Belgium, respectively.
This means Belgians are performing slightly better than the European average.
Beacon of stability
Additionally, 76% of Belgians regard the EU as a "beacon of stability in a turbulent world", and 75% believe that the EU should play a greater role in the future to protect citizens against global crises and security risks. This latter figure is higher than the EU average of 68%.
Belgians also believe the European Parliament should play a greater role (72% compared with 60% across the EU as a whole), prioritising tackling the high cost of living (44%), security (34%) and poverty and social exclusion (26%).
This last priority is more important to Belgians than to the EU as a whole (25%), and Belgians also attach greater importance to migration (26%) than the EU average (19%).
To strengthen its position in the world, the EU should focus primarily on energy independence, resources and infrastructure (39%, +13 percentage points) and defence and security (38%, -6 percentage points), according to Belgians.
In third place are competitiveness, the economy and industry, although at 25% this figure is considerably lower than the European average (32%).
Finally, 80% of Belgians say they are very or fairly satisfied with their quality of life, although 37% do believe that their standard of living will decline over the next five years (compared with 29% in the EU).
Almost half (48%) of Belgians believe that their quality of life would improve significantly if their financial situation were to improve (42% in the EU).
Furthermore, the affordability and quality of housing (29% compared with 24%) and the work-life balance (24% compared with 21%) are cited more frequently in Belgium than across the EU as a whole.
For the Eurobarometer survey, 26,421 EU citizens aged 15 and over were interviewed between 9 April and 4 May, including 1,021 Belgians.
