歐洲調查：德國人最悲觀
Germans are the gloomiest people in Europe according to a major new study of the 27 nations in the European Union.
The report, released by the European Commission, confirms what many Germans had themselves long suspected – they are masters of moaning.
Asked if life would be better in 20 years time, just 20 per cent of Germans could bring themselves to agree. In happy-go-lucky Estonia, which topped the chart, 78 per cent of people look at the future through rose-tinted spectacles.
"Estonian citizens were the most optimistic," noted the report, which polled 25,000 people across the EU. "The Germans, on the other hand, were the least optimistic – only one in five expected that life in Germany would improve in the long-term."
Britons were revealed as a touch more sceptical about future prospects than the average European, 49 per cent of whom think life will be worse in 20 years.
The study focused on "quality of life" issues such as schooling and job prospects, age of retirement and whether people would be able to afford medical costs or even a reasonable place to live.
It found that while new members of the EU, mostly from central and eastern Europe, were mostly of the view that life would get better and better, established members of the EU were almost all miserable.
Of pre-2004 EU members only the Irish and the Swedes managed to look on the bright side of life.
In fact, length of EU membership appears strongly related to a gloomy outlook. The six founder members of the EU occupy four of the five bottom spots on the future happiness chart, according the poll.
While Germans are the most mired in despair, they are closely followed by the Belgians, the Luxembourgers and the French.
在歐盟27個國家開展的一項最新大型調查顯示，德國是歐洲最悲觀的國家。
歐盟委員會發布的這一報告證實了長期以來人們對德國人的猜測——他們的確過於哀怨。
在被問及“是否相信20年後生活會更美好”時，僅有20％的德國人持肯定態度。而在此次調查中名列榜首的愛沙尼亞，有78%的人對未來比較樂觀。
報告指出：“愛沙尼亞人最樂觀，而德國人最悲觀——只有五分之一的人相信明天會更好。”這份報告是對歐盟成員國的2.5萬人進行調查後編撰而成的。
調查顯示，與普通歐洲人相比，英國人對未來更加懷疑，有49%的人認爲20年後的生活會比現在糟糕。
該調查主要圍繞“生活質量”展開，涉及教育、職業前景、退休年齡、醫療支出及住房等一系列問題。
調查發現，來自中歐和東歐的歐盟新成員國大多對未來充滿信心，而歐盟老成員國則普遍比較悲觀。
在2004年以前加入歐盟的成員國中，只有愛爾蘭人和瑞典人的生活態度比較樂觀。
事實表明，一個國家加入歐盟的時間越長，其國民對未來越悲觀。調查發現，排在“幸福期望”排行榜最後五位的國家中，歐盟六個創始國就佔了四個。
在這四個國家中，德國人最悲觀，其後依次是比利時人、盧森堡人和法國人。
