Familiarity with the key European institutions remains high among Bulgarians – European Parliament (90%), European Commission (78%), European Central Bank (84%) This shows a Eurobarometer survey conducted between 12 and 18 February 2021.
In terms of trust in each of them, our compatriots are close to the European average, with the highest confidence in the European Parliament (45%), and the lowest – the European Council (41%).
More than half of Bulgarians declare that they understand the way the EU works (56%). The share of Bulgarian citizens (53%) who say they trust the EU is growing compared to the summer of 2020 and is similar to that recorded among EU citizens as a whole (49%).
Eurobarometer reports that confidence in the EU among Bulgarians is higher than trust in key national institutions. With extremely low credit ratings are the national political parties (12%), the government (23%) and the justice system (23%).
The national institutions that enjoy high credit of our compatriots are the police (51%) and army (53%). However, the trust in each of these institutions at average European level is higher than in Bulgaria. Medical and health staff enjoy more trust than national and supranational institutions – nearly 2/3 of Bulgarians (62%).
The attitude of Bulgarians towards the EU as a whole remains consistently positive. More than half of respondents (59%) say that their view of the EU is positive, while at European average this attitude is supported by 46% of respondents. Bulgaria is one of the three member states in which the EU has the most positive image, by this indicator the country ranks next to Portugal (76%) and Latvia (57%).
Both Bulgarian (43%) and other European (38%) citizens, identify health as the EU’s most acute problem. As the epidemic develops, the health situation in the EU is seen as increasingly worrying both in Bulgaria (20% growth compared to summer 2020) and at average European level (16% increase compared to summer 2020).