Europeans "rapidly losing confidence in EU"

Source: Tanjug

BRUSSELS -- Europeans are rapidly losing confidence in the EU project and look at each other with increasing suspicion, a survey conducted in eight EU countries has shown.

The favorable view of the EU in the past year fell from 60 to 45 percent, researchers of the American Pew Research Center found. They published the results of an extensive survey with the participation of the citizens of Germany, France, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Spain and Italy.
The biggest drop was in France, where in 2012 about 60 percent of the population supported the EU, while today that percentage barely exceeds 40 percent.

Different levels of the decline were recorded in all other countries except the Czech Republic, where last year it rose by four per cent, but the total number of Czechs with a favorable opinion of the EU remain very low at only 38 percent - less even than in the traditionally euroskeptic Britain, where 43 percent still support the EU.

The results also show that citizens are increasingly doubtful about the ability of national leaders to pull their countries out of the crisis, and in France and Italy the support for national governments almost halved in the last year and barely exceed one third (France), and one quarter (Italy) of respondents.

The only exception is Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel has the backing of as many as 74 percent of respondents - lower, however compared to last year's 80 percent, but still unmatched in any other country.

Germany in this study differs also in most of the other indicators, and is the only among the eight countries covered where citizens believe that their economic situation over the past five years had improved, while all others recorded a drastic deterioration, particularly Greeks and Spaniards.

Interesting results were obtained by the Pew Center when it explored ethnic stereotypes by asking respondents which nations they considered most reliable and generous, and most arrogant and fickle.

Germany is considered "the most reliable nation," while Germans have the most favorable opinion of themselves. Germans also see themselves as "least arrogant and most generous of all."

Even though they all acknowledge its "reliability," most other nations see Germans as "arrogant and unfeeling" - with the exception of the British who, not surprisingly, attributed these negative traits to the French.

According to the survey, the only other nation that can match Germans in the narcissism department are the Greeks, who consider themselves the most reliable, generous and least prone to arrogance - an opinion that is not shared by any of the other participating nations.

Among the rare good news in this survey is that the confidence in the euro is growing despite the current crisis and is now around 65 percent. The trend is also present in the hardest-hit countries such as Spain and Italy.

All this could give reason to politicians, who last week pompously celebrated Europe Day, to seriously think about the diminishing confidence of voters in both European and national institutions, and the growing xenophobia in relation to the near and distant neighbors