Knowledge test shames Europeans

Do you know who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?

LONDON, England -- Citizens in many European countries are unable to answer basic questions on their shared history, geography and popular culture, a test has shown.

A cross-section of 3,800 people in 19 European countries were given 20 multiple choice questions on a variety of European themes.

The results, which appear in the July edition of Reader's Digest magazine, show Portugal came last, with an average of 9.6 while, EU hopeful Poland came top with an average of 15.4.

Bob Low, European bureau chief at Reader's Digest, said the quiz was designed to have questions to which any European might reasonably be expected to know the answers.

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"As I suspected, the results are fascinating and show that although there are some regional differences, we Europeans also know a lot in common," he said.

One of the trickiest questions for respondents across Europe was: "Who is the president of the European Commission?"

Only 52 percent of Europeans knew the answer was Romano Prodi, who has held the post since 1999. Just under half (48 percent) thought it was still Jacques Delors or Jacques Santer, his predecessors.

Even in Belgium, home of the European Commission, more than a third answered incorrectly.

Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia -- who are lining up to join the EU - fared better, however. An impressive 71.5 percent of Poles identified Prodi correctly compared with just 25 percent in the UK.

The UK's worst questions showed that three-quarters of respondents were clueless as to the author of the story of Hansel and Gretel and the home country of mobile phone company Nokia.

Overall, men tended to do better than women, except in Russia and Norway where women scored higher. Swiss men and women came out exactly level.

The results showed few disparities across Europe in the scores between the young (18-35), the middle-aged (36-50) and the over-fifties.

Katherine Walker, Editor-in-Chief of the British edition of Reader's Digest, told the UK Press Association: "While the results of our quiz illustrate that the UK is not quite bottom of the class in European Affairs, we are not far off it.

"This all but confirms what people have often said: Britons are less than enthusiastic Europeans."

Reader's Digest carried out the quiz in high streets and shopping malls across 42 towns and cities in 19 European countries.