Has The Financial Crisis Brought Trust In The European Union And His Currency Into Question?

The main purpose of this paper is to present the views of the households in the Balkan countries, and in some of the emerging countries towards the European Union and it currency, after they experience the consequences of the recent financial crisis. The main incentive for the paper is the surveys which were conducted by the Gallup Balkan Monitor, Austrian central bank and Eurobarometar. In spite of the fact that each of the surveys is conduct on their special mode, and there are not fully comparable, we can still get a broader picture of the opinions and the attitudes that the households have towards European Union, in this period of uncertainties and vulnerabilities. The first part is focus on the financial difficulties that the households have after their salaries and jobs were put in a question, because of the crisis. The second part is showing the attitudes that the households have towards the European Union and its institutions, and their views about the functioning of the local governments, showing the lack of optimism and trust, comparing with the previous years. In the last part of the paper, we focus on the opinions of the households towards the European currency - euro. Regarding this findings, we can see that in spite of the decrease trust of the households in the European Union and euro as a currency, still it is higher than the trust that the households have in their local currencies and their local government institutions.