Eurobarometer: COVID-19 crisis, Europeans deeply concerned. Trust in EU remains high, but not in Italy

64% of Europeans think that the situation is “bad” and 42% of Europeans think that their country’s economy will recover from the adverse effects of the coronavirus outbreak “in 2023 or later”. They are almost equally divided between satisfied (45%) and dissatisfied (44%) regarding the measures taken by the EU to fight the pandemic; the most satisfied are the Irish (71%). In Italy, 58% of respondents say they are dissatisfied. Support for the Economic and Monetary Union and for the euro, however, remains high, with 75% of respondents in the euro area saying they support the single currency. In the EU27 as a whole, support for the euro has increased to 67% (+5). 62% of respondents say they trust the EU to make the right decisions in the future, and 60% remain optimistic about the future of the EU. The data from the Eurobarometer survey conducted in July and August show that trust in the EU has remained stable at 43% since autumn 2019, despite variations from country to country, with the highest levels recorded in Ireland (73%), Denmark (63%) and Lithuania (59%) and the lowest in Italy (28%), France (30%) and Greece (32%). 19% of Europeans have a negative image of the EU whilst 40% have a “neutral” image. A third of Europeans (35%) are concerned about the economic situation; they are also increasingly concerned about the state of Member States’ public finances (23%), for health (22%), unemployment and rising prices. Concern for immigration, by contrast, is at an all-time low.
Sarah Numico