Seven in ten Romanians (70%) feel that their country is a secure place to live compared to 82% of the Europeans. On the other hand, 77% of Romanians feel that the European Union is a secure place to live in, just shy of the 79% EU average, according to a Eurobarometer survey.

Under half of Romanians and citizens of the wider EU agreed that the respect for fundamental rights and freedoms had the biggest positive impact on their personal security (44% and 42% respectively). This can include the freedom of speech, conscience, religion and freedom from discrimination. Conversely, the respondents felt that the largest negative impact was coming from the employment and economic conditions in their own countries.

When asked about the EU as a whole, the majority of Romanians said that organised crime was the most important challenge to Europe’s internal security, at 89%, with terrorism coming a very close second, at 88%. The EU citizens had similar views on the subject with terrorism taking an overwhelmingly strong 92% of the vote, and organised crime - 90%. Some 57% of the Romanian respondents also listed corruption as an important challenge to the security of EU citizens, a figure that was matched only by Spain.

The Romanians have different views from other Europeans about where the biggest threats to internal security would come from. An 85% majority of Romanian’s believed that most of the threats would come from war or political instability in regions outside of the EU whereas 86% of the EU citizens agreed that threats would come from extremist ideologies.

One point that was not contested by either the EU as a whole or Romania was that all threats listed in the study were more likely to increase rather than decrease over the coming three years with both sets of respondents selecting terrorism as the threat that will increase the most.

Essentially, both sets of respondents agree that fundamental rights and freedoms have been restricted to an extent in order to fight terrorism and organised crime.

The survey in question was carried out earlier this year by TNS Opinion and Social Network in the 28 EU member states.

Romanians, split over personal safety and Big Brother laws

by Dale Harris, editorial intern