The results of a special Eurobarometer survey were released on Monday and contained some rather interesting findings alongside revealing that despite the financial crisis eight out of ten EU citizens (79%) still believe it is important the European Union provides humanitarian aid to countries outside its borders.

The Special Eurobarometer 343 on Humanitarian Aid sought to gauge the EU public’s opinion on four major issues including the importance of EU humanitarian aid activities for EU citizens, their awareness of humanitarian aid and EU actors, their knowledge of EU humanitarian aid activities and whether they perceived any difference in the common or national approaches to humanitarian aid.

The main finding of the survey is that 79% still believe it is important that the European Union continues to provide humanitarian aid to countries outside its borders, such as it did following the earthquake in Haiti back in April.

However, perhaps inevitably, the financial crisis took its toll on the results as the approval rate of EU aid dropped 9% from 88% in July 2006 when the last survey was carried out. This decline indicates a clear and naturally-expected link between the individual financial situations of citizens and the giving of external aid - those who have problems paying their bills expressed less support.

Nationally, a decrease in support was noted in all EU countries with the exception of Cyprus where the approval rate remained at the same high level (95%) as in 2006.

Countries in which the largest fall in support was observed are Latvia (70%, down 18%), Lithuania (68%, down 15%), while in Belgium (71%), Denmark (80%), Poland (79%), Romania (74%) and the UK (75%) support dropped by 14%.

Public awareness still high - but not of the EU's projects...

In terms of awareness, 85% can name at least one organisation providing humanitarian aid on the ground and 72% can name at least one organisation funding humanitarian assistance, with the organisations most widely-known among EU citizens are the Red Cross and UNICEF.

Another positive finding for the European Commission, albeit bittersweet, is that 18% spontaneously name the EU, the European Commission and/or the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) as an actor funding humanitarian aid.

Although this represents a rise of 11% compared with 2006, it will serve as further proof that more work needs to be done to increase public awareness of its aid work since remember that the EU as a whole – Commission plus member states – is the world's largest humanitarian aid donor, with the Commission alone claiming to have spent on average nearly €800 million annually in the last five years (€931.7m in 2009).

Yet despite the fact that this is not actually the EU's role, 12% spontaneously name the EU, the Commission and/or ECHO as a provider of humanitarian aid on the ground.

Still on the subject of public awareness, 86% said it was important to be informed about EU humanitarian aid activities yet only 18% answered they are “well informed”. This last figure is down from 2006, and perhaps more worryingly 31% of respondents feel "not at all informed".

Aid 'more efficient' through the EU, but not popular in the UK

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