The Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February this year marks the map of both European and North American concerns: the war between countries and Russia are on the podium of the challenges they face in the coming years, while the concern about the pandemic or terrorism is losing more and more intensity. However, it is striking that in this context climate change is mentioned as a global challenge almost on a par with war. These are the main conclusions of the Transatlantic Trends 2022, a study that examines opinions and attitudes in 14 countries -USA, Canada, Turkey, United Kingdom and 10 EU countries, including Spain), and in which the Foundation BBVA collaborates as the main partner in the design of the questionnaire and in the analysis of the results. It has the participation of around 21,000 respondents and is focused on issues related to international politics and transatlantic relations. Importance of NATO and the EU As already mentioned, the Russian invasion marks the map of global challenges. As expected, those countries that show the greatest concern about Putin’s “special operations” are those bordering the conflict zone (Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Germany). However, in the US, war and Russia share importance with terrorism, cybersecurity, immigration, pandemics, and lastly, China. The countries of southern Europe (Italy, Portugal, France, Italy and Spain) and Canada are the ones that most mention climate change as the main challenge for their countries. There is no clear position on which should be the main body through which to channel relations with Russia: the most cited is the European Union (30%) and only three points below is NATO. Where there is absolute transatlantic consensus is regarding the measures to be taken to deal with the invasion. Among them: prosecute the Vladimir Putin regime for war crimes, increase the already existing economic sanctions promoted by the West and increase economic aid to the kyiv government. Related News standard No Almost half of Europeans trust the EU and support the response to the invasion of Ukraine, according to the latest Enrique Serbeto Eurobarometer In addition, 80% of citizens support the economic sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia In addition , the invasion has caused an increase in the existing approval in European countries to offer kyiv its entry into the EU (66% in favor compared to 52% support in 2014), as well as its incorporation into NATO (59% in favor). compared to 46% in 2014). Similarly, European support for imposing greater sanctions on Russia has grown. In this context, the vast majority of European countries (81%) consider that the EU is fundamental to the security of their country, including the United Kingdom (67%) by a large majority. A similar consensus exists on both sides of the Atlantic regarding the relevance of NATO in defensive matters (78%). It obtains its highest value in Portugal, Lithuania, Romania and Poland. The short-term expansion of the Atlantic Alliance by countries such as Sweden or Finland is supported on both continents (73% agree or strongly agree). USA, the country with the greatest influence The role of the United States in international security is also important: all countries, except Turkey, consider that it should be involved in the defense of Europe (72%) . In this sense, the nation governed by Democrat Joe Biden continues to be perceived as the country with the greatest influence. A leadership that would remain in a five-year estimate, even if it decreases. Along the same lines, the influence of Russia and China would grow in the same time estimate. As for China, almost a third of Europeans prefer not to say (28%) whether they consider it an ally, competitor or rival, while the majority of Americans consider it a competitor (34%) and even a rival (32). %). Furthermore, in a hypothetical scenario of China invading Taiwan, most believe that their country should take some action such as working diplomatically or joining other countries in imposing sanctions. The State of Democracy Regarding how to address the aforementioned global challenges, the prevailing position among European citizens is that their country should only cooperate with other democratic countries (majority opinion in: Portugal, Sweden, Poland and Spain). Meanwhile, in the US, opinions are much more divided and there is more support for the idea of cooperating with other countries regardless of whether they are democratic or not. The study also reveals that the majority (at least the relative majority) of nations have a very positive view of the state of their respective democracies, with the exception of: the US (where 51% have a poor or very bad), Italy, Poland and Turkey. In Spain, the majority of citizens have a good or very good (61%) perception of the country’s democracy.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism