Some statistics about bulgarians and the EU from my blog

Here are the questions I asked and the response I got:

The first poll asked the question “How do you estimate your knowledge about the EU?”. Only 2% said they are very familiar with the issues, policies and discussions. About 18% said that they search the net for news and resources about the EU regularly. 43% of the visitors in my blog receive information passively- they just follow the news in the mainstream media. 32% admit they know very little, but wish to learn more. It is important to note that none of my readers have marked that they don’t care about the EU at all. However 4% have noted that they are not big on these topics and they don’t pay attention to the news.

The second question was “Which topic you are most familiar with?”. I chose the predefined answers from the spectrum of topics that are mostly discussed in the Bulgarian media. The topics with most interest are “Euro funds” and “Free trade and work travel” - each with 18%. Both “EU policies and its link with Bulgarian legislation” and “Electronic rights” get about 7% attention. The rest share 10% and include “EU constitution”, “International relations” and “Energy independence”. Interestingly enough, no one shows interest in “Participation of Bulgarian parties in EP groups”. Although disturbing, I don’t find it surprising that little over 40% know almost nothing about the EU.

In the last poll question I asked “On which topic would you like to learn more?”. 23% are quick to choose “EU law making”. “Free trade and work”, “Electronic rights”, “EU constitution” and “EU funds” get 19%, 14%, 7% and 7% respectively. It is important to note that questions related to the EU elections and the work of the elected officials appreciate more than 26% of the attention - 12% wish to know how the institutions work, while for 9% the responsibilities of the MEPs are most important. Only 4% are interested in other topics.

I personally find these results to be disturbing in the sense that quite a lot of people (>40%) admit that they know too little about the EU. Still it’s encouraging, because many show interest in learning more. More than 50% of my readers get their information passively or from the internet, which means that there is place for blog that provide insight in EU politics. In my last article I noted that in Bulgaria blogs are becoming a primary source for information and analysis for more and more people. This advantage may be used to satisfy the need that those 26%, who express a need for information related to the EU elections. By showing how important the EU elections are for the legislation process in the European Parliament, the generated set of articles will also attract the other 30% who are interested in the EU laws, constitution and how they influence Bulgaria.

As a conclusion, I find that these polls prove the need for initiatives as this one, but more importantly - a long-term source of information and insight into EU politics. There are already such in the Bulgarian internet space, but my feeling is that they don’t present the information in the right way. I don’t know what that “right way” is, but I’ve been trying to find it out for the past month. A good sign is that my articles in Bulgarian attract a lot of attention and comments. I can only hope that I am close. After all, that’s what blogs are all about - experimenting and expressing ones thoughts.

Image credit: nshepard@Flickr, vx_lentz@Flickr

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