 FLASH EUROBAROMETER FIRST RESULTS EU citizens and their opinion on therebuilding of Iraq and peace in the world On the1st October the European Commission has put forward itsapproach to the reconstruction of Iraq. On the 23rd and 24thOctober, the Ministerial Donors Conference was held in Madrid withthe participation of the European Union, the United States, theUnited Arab Emirates, the World Bank, the International MonetaryFund and the United Nations as core members.The Flash Eurobarometer 1 survey was carried out with the aim ofdiscovering what the citizens in the 15 EU member states arethinking about the reconstruction of Iraq, the Middle East conflictand peace in the world.The first results of this survey reveal that EU citizens :• prefer that the United Nations and the provisional governmentmanage the rebuilding of Iraq• are highly in favour of offering humanitarian aid to Iraq• want their country to participate in financing the rebuilding ofIraq• want the US to bear the brunt of financing the rebuilding of Iraq• want the UN to guarantee security in Iraq• want the UN to manage the transition to a sovereign governmentin Iraq• think that the military intervention in Iraq was not justified• want more EU involvement in the Middle East Peace process• still feel the threat of terrorism. I. Rebuilding Iraq EU citizens prefer that the United Nations (UN) and theprovisional government manage the rebuilding of IraqThe US is the least trusted (18%) to manage the rebuilding of Iraq -less than the EU (25%) or a provisional government (44%),according to EU citizens. An average of 58% of those interviewedwant the UN to keep this role. People in UK more than elsewhere(72%) want the UN to manage the rebuilding. 
Split opinions for financial involvement in rebuilding Iraq More than half of the European citizens favour their country’sfinancial participation in rebuilding Iraq (54% yes – 45% no). InDenmark, 76% of those interviewed want to contribute, while 64%of the Portuguese are against their country contributing. 
US should pay for the rebuilding of IraqThe majority of EU citizens want the US to pay for the rebuilding ofIraq (65%) compared to the UN (44%), the provisional government(29%) or the EU (24%). Germany is the country with the highestpercentage (84%) of interviewees who want the US to takeresponsibility for financing the rebuilding . Europe prefers to offer humanitarian aid.If humanitarian aid is needed, the people in Iraq can rely on the EUcitizens, as 82 % approve a reinforcement of humanitarian aid whileonly 17% are against. Approval is led by the Greeks with 93% whowish to send humanitarian aid from their country to Iraq.Question : For each of the following propositions concerning theafter war Iraq tell me if you are in favour or not. The reinforcementof humanitarian aid from [our country] towards Iraq 
Split opinions on sending own troops on a peacekeepingmission to Iraq54% of EU citizens are not in favour of sending their own troopscompared with 44%, who are in favour. European countries have nocommon opinion on this topic. A strong difference of opinion isobserved between Germany and Denmark, where 71% of Germansdo not want their troops to go to Iraq, while 77% of Danes say theyare in favour of sending national troops. 
EU citizens want the UN to guarantee security in IraqEU citizens would prefer that the UN peacekeeping forces (43%) orthe UN in general (19%), guarantee Iraq’s security. Only 11% arein favour of UN multinational forces - under US command. Evenmore interviewees would choose a provisional government (8%)guaranteeing security rather than the US alone (6%) or the US,together with their allies (5%).France shows the highest approval (54%) for UN peacekeepingforces and, together with the Netherlands, Finns (3%) show littlesupport for the US’s role in guaranteeing Iraq’s security. 
II. The Middle East conflict and peace in theworld Military intervention was not justified, say the majority of EUcitizensTwo thirds of EU citizens think military intervention was not justified(68%), while only 29% think it was justified.Only in Denmark did the majority think it was justified (57%). Thehighest percentage of EU citizens who think it was not justified canbe found in Greece (96%). Even in Spain (79%) and the UK (51%)- allies of the US - the majority states that military intervention wasnot justified . EU citizens want more involvement in the Middle East peaceprocessMost of the EU citizens (81%) think that the EU should play animportant role in resolving the Middle East conflict. Only 16%disagree. The highest support for the EU to play a leading rolecomes from Greece (90%) and Italy (89%) . EU citizens still feel the threat of terrorismThe European majority still feels threatened by terrorism (55%) butthere are significant national differences. People in Spain (76%) andUK (76%) are most frequently afraid. Among the Finns and theAustrians, on the other hand, only a few (6%, and 10%,respectively) seem concerned .  | 
