BRUSSELS FURY: Massive wave of anti-EU sentiment in nations including France and Germany
GERMANY and France were more pessimistic about the future of the European Union than Britain was in the run up to the Brexit vote, a study shows.
By CAROLINE WHEELER, EXCLUSIVE
Express.co.uk
Sun, Jul 31, 2016
The Eurobarometer poll found that more than half – 51 per cent – of French and Germans were “totally pessimistic” about the EU’s future.
This compared to 46 per cent of Britons, who voted to leave the European Union on June 23, three weeks after the study, which was conducted between May 21 and May 31.
More than half of respondents in Greece (70 per cent), Cyprus (54 per cent) and Hungary (52 per cent) were also totally pessimistic about the future of the EU.
It means that the EU’s so-called “index of optimism” has reached its lowest level since spring 2013 and has fallen 16 percentage points since spring 2015.
Overall the survey, carried out by the European Commission, found that the “proportion of Europeans for whom the EU conjures up a positive image has decreased by three percentage points to 34 per cent, while the proportion who have a negative image of the EU has rise to 27 per cent since autumn 2015.”
In the past six months the positive image of the EU has lost ground in 20 member states, most strikingly in Romania (down 15 per cent), Croatia (down 14 per cent) and Lithuania (down 10 per cent).
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