Brussels - Slovenians are the least likely of all EU citizens to trust their government that EU recovery funds will be used properly, according to a Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Parliament as a contribution to the debate ahead of Wednesday's State of the Union speech by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The authors focused on the economic recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges related to respect for the rule of law.

One of the measurements was how much Europeans trusted their national governments to properly use the "NextGenerationEU" funds meant for economic recovery. Slovenians are at the bottom - only 24% of respondents trust their government, 68% do not trust it and 9% said they did not know.

The other countries where people are least likely to trust their government are Slovakia and Hungary, while Luxembourgers, Danes, Finns and the Dutch trust their governments most. The EU average stands at 44%, according to the survey.

A large majority of respondents (81%) agreed that the EU should only allocate funds to those member states that respect the rule of law and democratic principles.

In Slovenia, 76% of respondents agreed with this, while the lowest percentage of people that agreed was recorded in Poland with 72%.

The online survey was conducted by Ipsos for the European Parliament in the second half of August and targeted EU citizens aged 15 and over. It was carried out in all 27 EU member states and approximately 26,000 interviews were conducted in total.