In an exclusive survey commissioned by Euronews, European citizens from 18 countries were asked to give their opinion on key issues ahead of the June elections. Among the topics, the Union’s management of the pandemic: 40 percent of those questioned approve it
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According to an exclusive Euronews-Ipsos poll, around 40% of Europeans said they had a positive opinion of the EU’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, there are large differences between EU countries: while in Portugal 74% of citizens have a positive opinion on the actions of Brussels, in the Czech Republic the percentage drops to 24%.
The respondents with the most negative opinions on the EU’s role during the pandemic are found in Romania, Slovakia and Austria. Overall, around 32% of Europeans interviewed said they had neither a positive nor a negative opinion, while 28% had a negative opinion.
The Ipsos poll commissioned by Euronews was conducted in 18 countries online and by telephone between 23 February and 5 March, around three months before the European elections in June: it involved a total of almost 26,000 participants of voting age. Respondents were asked whether they believed that the EU had had a positive, negative or neither positive nor negative impact on the fight against Covid over the years.
Who is most likely to view the EU’s response to Covid positively?
In Portugal, Finland, Spain, Belgium and Denmark, more than half of respondents have a predominantly positive view of the EU’s impact in fighting the pandemic. Overall while there are no major differences between men and women, there are differences based on age.
Some 47% of respondents aged 65 and over had a positive opinion of the EU’s handling of the pandemic, compared to 41% of those aged 18-29 and 36% of those they are between 30 and 49 years old.
People over the age of 65 were more at risk of serious health consequences, while younger people may have been more affected by movement restrictions imposed by individual countries.
More than half of those surveyed intending to vote for the EU-friendly Greens, Social Democrats and Renew Europe liberals spoke positively about the bloc’s commitment during the pandemic. In Greece, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Poland and the Netherlands, Europeans interviewed have a more positive than negative opinion of the EU’s impact on the fight against Covid.
The EU mobilized a massive 800 billion euro stimulus package during the pandemic, partly based on joint loans, to help economies recover from the crisis. Furthermore, the EU has jointly purchased vaccines against the virus, securing up to 4.6 billion doses worth around €71 billion by the end of 2021, according to a report from the European Court of Auditors.
While the vaccine rollout was initially criticized as slower than that of the US and UK, the auditors’ report found that the European Commission had “limited leverage to overcome supply challenges”.
The bloc achieved its target of vaccinating 70% of adults in July 2021. Portugal, where respondents were most positive about the EU’s impact on the pandemic, had the highest vaccination rate at the end of the same year. tall in the world.
Who is most likely to have a negative view of the EU’s impact on the pandemic?
The survey found that Europeans in five countries have a more negative than positive opinion of the EU’s handling of the pandemic. In all countries, however, the percentage of respondents with a negative opinion was less than half of the respondents.
Around 42% of respondents in Romania see the EU’s impact as negative, while 41% of respondents in Slovakia and 40% of respondents in Austria have a negative opinion. Around 38% of respondents in Hungary view the EU’s impact negatively, while in the Czech Republic this percentage is 36%.
The Euronews-Ipsos poll also found that those planning to vote for the right-wing populist and Eurosceptic parties in the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament have a more negative view of the EU’s response to the pandemic. Around 49% of respondents who intend to vote for the Identity and Democracy parties have a negative view of the impact of the lockdown on the pandemic, while only 22% have a positive opinion.
