EU disappointment at British, Austrian scepticism

The executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission, has expressed disappointment at some of the results of a survey of attitudes towards the Union.

The survey, which was published yesterday , found a significant majority of people in Britain and Austria did not think membership was a good thing.

However, seventy per cent of those questioned across the EU supported the idea of a European constitution and fifty-eight per cent were in favour of the single European currency, the euro. In the case of Austria, an EU spokesman said the result was unfairly influenced by sanctions brought individually by EU member states in protest at the inclusion of the right-wing Freedom party in the government.

In Britain's case, the spokesman said the commission was partly at fault for failing to get its message across, although he said large sections of the British press had a sceptical attitude to Europe.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service