For the first time since 2007, more Europeans than not believe “my voice counts in the EU,” according to a survey of over 27,000 people across the Continent.
Yet the same poll — released Wednesday to mark one year until the 2019 European Parliament election — also found a warm welcome for the anti-establishment parties shaking up politics in the bloc.
The survey, carried out for the European Parliament by Kantar Public, a consultancy, found that 48 percent of EU citizens surveyed agree their voice counts in the EU, while 46 percent disagree — and Brexit appears to have improved the pro-EU mood. Before the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in 2016, just 37 percent of Europeans agreed their voice counted in the EU.
However, citizens feel more connected to national politics than pan-European: 63 percent of Europeans agree their voice counts at the national level, with that figure topping 90 percent in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
The good news for the Eurocrats and politicians preparing for next year’s election is that support for the EU is “the highest score ever measured since 1983” according to the survey report.
But attitudes vary dramatically across the Continent, and there are several warning signs for the traditionalists, notably support for anti-establishment parties.
Just 38 percent consider these new parties a threat to democracy — not a view shared by many of the old guard — and 63 percent of those aged 24 and under agreed “new political parties and movements can find solutions better” than existing parties.
Overall 70 percent did agree that “just being against something does not improve anything.”
Better news for the EU is that 67 percent believe their country has benefited from EU membership, according to the survey, and 60 percent say being part of the bloc remains a good thing. (12 percent say it’s bad for their country.) In 2011, at the height of the EU’s financial and economic crises, just 47 percent said EU membership was a good thing.
Levels of support for the EU have gone up in 26 of the bloc’s 28 member countries‚ the exceptions being Germany and the United Kingdom which recorded 2 percent decreases in support (within the survey’s margin of error).
In Italy, which is on course to have a populist governing coalition comprising the far-right League and the anti-establishment 5Star Movement, twice as many people believe their voice isn’t heard at EU level (61 percent to 30 percent), as believe that it is.
Italians are also the least likely to think their country has benefited from EU membership (44 percent agree while 41 percent disagree), and twice as many think the EU is going in the wrong direction (49 percent) as the right one (24 percent).
When it comes to the longer term, overall, more Europeans think the bloc is headed in the wrong direction (42 percent) than in the right direction (32 percent).
Greeks were most down on Europe, with 68 percent of those questioned answering “wrong direction.” The most positive country was Ireland, with two-thirds of respondents saying their country and the EU are moving in the right direction.
Election opinions
If the survey results are anything to go by, the EU will have difficulty getting more people out to vote next year than they have in the past (turnout in the 2014 ballot was 42.6 percent, a record low).
According to this year’s survey results, only half of the EU population has an interest in the Parliament elections. That’s on a par with previous results in the same survey.
As for what should be on the agenda ahead of the election, citizens picked terrorism as the most pressing topic of discussion, ahead of youth unemployment and immigration.
In the same survey in 2013, terrorism ranked lowest on a list of concerns, nominated by just 7 percent of those surveyed. In 2018, that had risen to 49 percent overall across the EU.
The results varied widely between countries. There is a great deal of concern about immigration in Italy (where 66 percent said it is a priority issue), Malta (65 percent), and Hungary (62 percent).
Fighting youth unemployment and support for economic growth are the top concerns in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Croatia. Dutch, Swedish and Danish citizens describe “social protection of citizens” as their top concern.
No matter what the election campaign focuses on, many Europeans have little interest in the Parliament and its work.
While citizens in most European countries would trust the Parliament with a greater role in EU decisions, only in Ireland (52 percent) did the Parliament score a majority positive rating. In most EU countries fewer than one-third of citizens have a positive view of the assembly — and in France, just one in six voters had a positive view of the institution (which moves to Strasbourg once a month).
Spitzenkandidaten
The survey asked voters about the EU’s latest effort to connect with voters: the Spitzenkandidat system, which pushes political parties to choose a candidate to be European Commission president, with the party receiving the most votes getting their choice into the top job in the Berlaymont (subject to approval by the member countries).
While a majority of respondents agreed the system increases both the transparency and legitimacy of the European Commission, 70 percent agreed “it only makes sense if accompanied by a real debate about European issues and the future of the EU.”
The survey was carried out in April among 27,601 Europeans.
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