What do you want to know about the EU?

21 March 2016 | Jill Rutter

Full Fact provides a resource to those who want impartial facts about the EU referendum.

But it also provides a window on what people are interested in. So one month after David Cameron’s deal, what does Full Fact’s own data tell us about the public and the EU campaign?

First - people are interested.  There was a surge in traffic to our website in the immediate aftermath of the European Council when we published our expert analysis of the deal.  Our Europe hub page saw ten times more traffic than normal. Since then, not surprisingly, it has tailed off (this is, after all, a long campaign, competing with other earlier elections and events - the Budget, more strikes by junior doctors to name but two).

Second, the subject that dominates our search data is the size of the UK’s contribution to the EU.  That is not surprising, since there have been claim and counterclaim on this and, as our factcheck shows, it is quite complicated.

The next most selected topic is our explainer on the renegotiation deal itself - but with less than a tenth of the number of hits. Coming close is the issue that featured as a big theme in the Clegg/Farage debate in the run-up to 2014 European Parliament elections - the proportion of UK legislation that comes from the EU.

Not making it into the top ten but also attracting interest are the questions on the costs and benefits of EU membership, the contribution of EU immigrants to the British economy and whether the EU budget has been rejected repeatedly by the Court of Auditors.

That’s what people have been searching for so far.  

We have just launched Ask Full Fact to respond to the questions you want answered before you vote on June 23rd.  You can post questions you have and upvote others. So start posting and we will do our best to give you the information you need in time. 


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