Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.Frankfurt (dpa) – Citizens of the European Union feel increasingly attached to the Union, a new report by two German universities has suggested. Voters across the bloc are heading to the polls this week to vote for the European Parliament elections.
The joint study by two German institutions, the Saarland University and the Philipps University of Marburg, showed a clear trend of increasing support for the EU, based off data from 600,000 respondents to the Eurobarometer public opinion survey from across the 27 member states between 1991 and 2023.
In the report, published in the Journal of European Public Policy, EU citizens rated their attachment to the Union on a scale of 1 to 4.
The study demonstrated that support for the EU has risen across all generations and age groups. Younger people – sometimes believed to be more supportive of the EU, having benefited from exchange programmes like Erasmus+ as well as greater travel opportunities – were not clear outliers.
Major challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine strengthened cohesion within the EU, the results suggested, although the eurozone crisis following the global financial crash did lead to a downturn in attitudes towards the union. (6 June)
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