Germans' fear of nuclear disasters highest in the EU

Nov 25, 2011, 14:19 GMT

Brussels - Germans' fear nuclear disasters more than their counterparts in other European Union countries, a survey released on Friday indicated.

Nuclear incidents were identified as the biggest threat to national security by 19 per cent of German respondents to a survey carried out by Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency. The average across the bloc was 8 per cent.

In an abrupt policy U-turn, the German government decided to phase out nuclear energy in the wake of the earthquake-induced disaster in March in Japan's Fukushima province.

Germany also came out as having the EU's highest proportion of people concerned by cybercrime - standing at 27 per cent, against an average for the bloc of 10 per cent.

Other threats weighed more heavily in other countries.

Terrorism was most often mentioned as a threat in Denmark (55 per cent) and Britain (47 per cent); poverty was an overwhelming concern in Bulgaria (60 per cent) and Romania (55 per cent); economic and financial crises caused the biggest headaches in Ireland (61 per cent), Spain (57 per cent) and Greece (56 per cent).

Eurostat said it survey was carried on a sample of 26,840 people in all 27 EU states between June 4 and June 19.