More than half of European Union citizens believe banks should be regulated on the EU level rather than on a national level, according to a recent poll released by European Parliament.

The Eurobarometer poll, published Oct. 18, showed that 54 percent of those polled believed banking supervision would be more effective at the EU level rather than at the national level. Additionally, 57 percent said EU-level regulators would be better suited than national counterparts to support banks in difficulty. Respondents were more closely split on the issue of guaranteeing citizens' deposits. Forty-seven said the EU level would be more effective at guaranteeing deposits while 45 percent said national regulators would be more effective.

Lawmakers are still haggling over the proposed single banking union to supervise banks in the European Union, an initiative aimed at warding off another financial crisis through tighter regulation and supervision. Some member states, particularly Germany, have criticized parts of the plan, saying it takes too much power away from national authorities.

The survey, conducted in June, covered a total of 27,624 respondents from all 28 member states.

About 50 percent said they would be better protected from the current economic crisis if their countries joined other EU members in coordinated measures, a drop of 5 percent from the previous year. Forty-one percent said in the most recent poll that they would be better off if their country were to tackle the crisis alone, which was a 3 percent increase from last year.

Most did not feel the common currency has helped mitigate the impact of the financial crisis. Fifty-one percent said the euro has not mitigated the negative effects, a 3 percent decrease from last year. Thirty-eight percent said the euro has mitigated the negative effects of the crisis, an increase of 4 percent.

Respondents were split evenly on whether the EU or their national government could better protect them from negative effects of globalization, with 49 percent weighing in for each group. The largest group – 39 percent – felt the EU budget of 1 percent of member states' gross domestic product was appropriate. Twenty-two percent said the budget was too small, while 13 percent said the budget was too big, and another 26 percent responded that they didn't know.

Not surprisingly, jobs and fighting unemployment topped the list of priorities, with 74 percent ranking those concerns first, a 2 percent increase over last year.

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