High costs now a worry for Europeans

Money worries are keeping Europeans awake at night, according to a new poll that found 45 percent of European Union citizens now say their personal finances are their biggest single concern.

The Eurobarometer survey found that Europeans have developed fears for their financial future because of the continent's cost of living crisis triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the resulting shortage of fossil fuels and skyrocketing prices for oil and natural gas.

The cost of living crisis, in which pay rises have fallen well short of fast-rising price inflation, means people are becoming poorer and many are now becoming increasingly worried about the future, the pollsters found.

Nearly 46 percent of people questioned told the pollsters their standard of living had already fallen because of the crisis, and 39 percent said they are expecting their standard of living to fall further in the year ahead. Only 14 percent said they did not expect their lifestyle to change in the immediate future, according to the poll, which was released by the European Parliament on Thursday.

The findings were based on face-to-face interviews with more than 26,000 EU citizens conducted between October and November right across the 27-member bloc.

"In every member state, over 7 respondents out of 10 stated they are worried about increasing cost of living," the first of the new Eurobarometer survey's concluded.

The pollsters found people in Cyprus felt most strongly that their standard of living had already fallen because of the cost of living crisis, with 70 percent saying it was so.

Fallen standard

Nearly 66 percent of respondents in Greece, 65 percent in Malta and 62 percent in France also said their standard of living had already fallen noticeably because of the cost of living crisis.

Across the bloc, some 39 percent of respondents said they are already having trouble paying their monthly bills "from time to time", with 9 percent saying they are now struggling to meet their monthly payments "most of the time".

In addition, most survey respondents said the EU is not doing enough to alleviate the situation, with 56 percent saying they were dissatisfied with the bloc's interventions.

Overall, 93 percent of Europeans said they were worried about the cost of living crisis.

"The price rises, including energy and food prices, were felt by each sociodemographic group," the report said.

The poll also found people were worried that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will spill over into other European countries, which was their third biggest single concern, after their fear of social exclusion because of poverty.

"The citizens expect the EU to keep working at potential solutions to mitigate the aggravating effects of the multiple crises that have affected the continent," the Eurobarometer report added.