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The EU is still a force to reckon with
The EU is viewed favourably by residents of countries both within and outside the bloc, a different narrative than the impression often left in various news reports
- PUBLISHED: Mon 24 Oct 2022, 10:08 PM
- By:
- Jon Van Housen and Mariella Radaelli
Critics say the European Union is often an ineffectual talking shop hobbled by a vast bureaucracy, yet today it is seen in a largely favourable light both within the bloc and outside it, according to a recently released poll by the Pew Research Centre. The popularity of the EU is at an all-time high in 10 of the 19 countries surveyed.
The support comes despite years of reported dissatisfaction among a significant number of European residents and opposition from nationalist political parties. Even in the United Kingdom, whose citizens voted to leave the EU in 2016, some 68 percent of respondents in a recent survey say they have a favourable opinion of the bloc.
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In Italy, which has just elected and sworn in its first woman prime minister – who before advocated Eurosceptic policies – some 71 percent of those surveyed by Pew said they view the EU in a favourable light.
In Germany, 78 percent of those surveyed this year have a positive opinion of the EU, up from the 63 percent who said the same in 2021, a result that is echoed in most other EU member nations.
In addition to the UK, the citizens of other non-EU countries surveyed also have a favourable view of the organization, including South Korea (84%), Australia (72%), Canada (70%), the United States (64%) and Japan (64%). Opinion was more divided in Singapore (57%) and Malaysia (53%). Only respondents from Israel (50%) had a result that was not clearly favourable.
Among the EU member countries polled, the Greeks were the most divided in their views of the bloc. Half of those queried in Greece have a favourable view, while nearly the same share (49%) have an unfavourable opinion of it.
“This is in keeping with past trends in Greece, where favourable views of the EU have never risen above 53 percent in the nine years that Pew Research Centre has asked this question,” wrote the co-authors of the report Moira Fagan and Sneha Gubbala.
Greece was particularly hard hit by a sovereign debt crisis following the recession of 2008. While the EU agreed to financial assistance, it imposed strict austerity measures that many Geeks said only further damaged the country.
So with a couple of outliers, the EU is viewed favourably by residents of countries both within and outside the bloc, a different narrative than the impression often left in various news reports.
According to the Brussels-based Bruegel think-tank the EU has long battled the perception that it lacks support.
“There is a persistent narrative about the European Union according to which progressive European unification is an endeavour pursued by elites against the wishes, or at least without the support, of a majority of the population,” said a study compiled by a team of multinational economists titled “Do citizens care about Europe? More than they used to”.
“Supporters of European integration stress that, over the decades, the EU has not only survived and grown but has also confirmed founding father Jean Monnet's prophecy that Europe would be built on the back of solutions to its recurrent crises,” says the study. “European integration has become more and more pervasive.”
“I have always believed that Europe would be built through crises, and that it would be the sum of their solutions,” Monet wrote in his memoirs.
Faced with a range of crises and continued uncertainty, it appears the EU is likely seen by many as a safe haven in tumultuous times. And if Monet's view is correct, the range of crises the bloc has faced in recent years – or more precisely, its solutions to those crises – have made it stronger.
Beginning with the financial crisis of 2008, the EU has confronted one major challenge after another. In a policy paper on the EU and the “creative and destructive impact of crises”, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says the recession 14 years ago “brought about major innovations in the union's financial architecture”.
The “massive influx of refugees in 2015 and 2016 resulted in a substantial strengthening of its external borders”, the Carnegie Endowment says, while the UK's decision to leave the EU ended up “enhancing the cohesion of remaining members and unblocked negotiations on defense policy”.
The Carnegie Endowment says the pandemic led to an EU recovery fund, “a breakthrough for the financial solidarity of member states”, and gave rise to the union's first collective vaccination program while “Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted a massive mobilization of the EU's external policy including, for the first time, the delivery of weapons and tough sanctions”.
Poland could be taken as an example of how crisis has strengthened solidarity. Before being locked in a dispute with the union over the acceptance of EU laws, the share of Poles who now have a very favourable view of the EU has increased 10 points since 2019, the last previous time they were surveyed on the question.
In nearly all of the countries where favourable views of the EU have increased significantly since the question was last asked, the change is particularly pronounced among those ages 50 and older, said the authors of the report from Pew Research.
And as it hunkers down for a winter of soaring energy costs, perhaps the EU can derive some warmth from an increasing sense of collective goodwill among its members.
- Jon Van Housen and Mariella Radaelli are international veteran journalists based in Italy
