The State of the European Union. The European Parliament faces its most important elections yet

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 130 Social, labour and tax policies Survey results indicate that Spaniards are clearly in favour of the EU taking charge of at least some aspects of social and labour policy and that they support the creation of EU-level enti- ties with a mandate to manage these issues. When asked at what level they believed respon- sibility for labour policy should lie, 57.8% of survey participants replied that the EU and Member States should exercise shared compe- tence on issues related to employment and working conditions and 11% were in favour of the transfer of total competence for labour policy to the EU level. Survey participants re- sponded in a similar manner when asked if the EU should have the power to enact labour leg- islation, almost 70% indicating support for EU competence in this area. In the context of both questions, respondents supported the idea of creating supranational entities with mandates to implement and monitor such policy such as a European Social investment Fund, European Labour Authority or European Labour Court ( Chart 2 ). Good or very good: 16.5% Very good    Good    Average    Poor    Very poor    DK/PNTA Poor or very poor: 28.7% 1.0 15.5 47.8 17.1 11.6 7.0 Chart 1. The EU’s performance in protecting citizens from the impact of the crisis Chart 2. Support for social and labour policy initiatives at the EU level All European citizens should have the same social rights as nationals regardless of the EU country in which they are employed A minimum income adjusted to the standard of living of each EU country should be established The EU should guarantee a minimum EU pension The EU should guarantee all EU citizens have access to employment The EU should ensure that all EU citizens have access to professional training Strongly agree   Somewhat agree   Neither agree nor disagree   Somewhat disagree   Strongly disagree   DK/NA 53.3 43.8 57.2 51.9 53.7 25.4 29.1 25.6 28.2 28.1 9.6 10.8 6.4 10.2 10.4 4.0 6.5 4.1 3.2 2.5 2.9 5.0 2.7 2.8 2.1 3.4 4.7 4.8 4.1 3.6