Nine in ten people in Belgium (91%) believe that EU legislation is necessary to protect the country's environment, a new Eurobarometer survey reveals.
The survey on attitudes of Europeans towards the environment found that more than three-quarters of Europeans (78%) agree that environmental issues have a direct effect on their daily life and their health. This rises to 82% among the 1,043 people surveyed in Belgium.
Among the actions which respondents in Belgium said would be most effective to tackle environmental issues, number one was promoting a circular economy by reducing waste and recycling or reusing products (62%).
This was followed by better regulations to ensure that products sold on the EU market do not contribute to harming the environment (56%) and enforcing EU environmental laws (55%).
On the subject of protecting nature, respondents in Belgium said that the top priority action should be ensuring that nature is protected when planning new developments or infrastructure (52%), followed by strengthening nature conservation rules (46%), and restoring nature to compensate for damage caused by human activities (45%).
63% of Belgians said they would be willing to pay more for products that are easy to repair or recycle, or sustainably made – above the EU average of 59%.
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Meanwhile at least half of respondents in Belgium were willing to use recyclable packaging (50%) and correctly sort their waste for recycling (63%).
At an EU level, the survey results are nearly identical to those from the last survey conducted in 2019. Analysts said this highlights "the continued relevance of EU environmental policy".
Citizens are also concerned about the costs of pollution. 92% of Europeans say that companies should pay for the costs of cleaning up their pollution, while 74% agree that public authorities should pay for the costs.
