EU is getting more popular as we speak

The latest data are out in the Eurobarometer 2009 sampled during June-July.

On the question (page 215): Would you say that you are very optimistic, fairly optimistic, fairly pessimistic or very pessimistic about the future of the European union?

Students are optimistic to the degree of 78% and pessimistic in only 14%.

People between 15-24 years of age are optimistic at 70% and pessimistic at 22%.
People at 55+ are optimistic at 58% and pessimistic at 33%.

People in the EU tend to believe that things are going in the right direction at 34% and 35% believe that things are going in the wrong direction. 20% think neither the one or the other.
This can be compared to the Real Clear Politics question for the US: Right track 37%, Wrong track 57%.

On the question: Taking everything into account, would you say that (OUR COUNTRY) has benefited or not from being a member of the European Union? more and more persons are positive over the years. The average number of positive individuals are now 56% whereas the number of negative persons is holding steady at 32% over the years sampled.

Looking at these socio-demographics the conclusion can only be that the EU is a success that will mature more and more as we go along based on the high popularity among the young. However, the reason I started to look for the above data was to find the diagram for how Europeans judge their parliament and government compared to how they feel about the EU parliament and the European Commission. In the Eurobarometer 68 (sampled Nov-Dec 2007) one finds data that people trust the military at 71%, national parliaments at 35% and political parties at 18%. This could be compared with American's job approval for Congress at 25% on the RCP site.

It is interesting that Latvia has the lowest trust in their national government with 10% approval and only 5% approval of their political parties in the light of their devaluation risk and the recent complaints of Anders Borg on their inusufficient frugality. A representative of their government said on SVT that there is a risk of civil unrest if they save more than they do. In Latvia 40% trust the European Parliament!