The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), the European Policy Centre (EPC), and ifok conducted an online survey that sheds light on this question. 224 individuals from 29 countries responded to the survey, with Germans being slightly overrepresented (33%). The pool of respondents includes a high number of members of European institutions (30%) and think tanks (21%), as well as business representatives (38%), plus a smaller proportion of diplomats, NGOs, journalists, and academics. The majority (68%) of those surveyed indicate that they carry a substantial degree of job responsibility.
The survey questions revolve around three thematic blocks: (1) the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the EU; (2) the expectations of the Brussels community towards the German Council Presidency; and (3) the views of Brussels-based stakeholders on the set-up and content of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) and the future of the Union more generally. Although the survey is not representative in a statistical sense, it provides a reliable indication of Brussels-based stakeholders’ opinion on all these issues.
This preliminary paper highlights four main findings of the survey and will be followed in late September by a more detailed analysis of the results. Whereas the present report derives its data exclusively from the online survey, the final paper will also incorporate findings from semi-structured interviews.
You can download the complete report as pdf.
