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.
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).
Both Italy (down six per cent) and Germany (down five per cent) also saw a dip. More than a third (36 per cent) of Britons had a totally negative view of the EU.
Austria (37 per cent), Cyprus (41 per cent) and Greece (51 per cent) were the only countries to have a less positive view.
Last night Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who led the Vote Leave campaign in the East Midlands, said: “Britain has often been portrayed as the country which has been rocking the boat, but it would seem from the results of the European Commission’s own poll that we are not the only member state to have fallen out of love with the EU.
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“It is clearly a damning indictment of Monsieur Juncker and his cronies in Brussels that an increasing number of people in each member state are losing faith in the failing EU project and that people in France and Germany are now more Eurosceptic than in Britain. Imagine what would happen in those countries if they held a referendum on their relationship with the EU?”
According to the poll, immigration is the greatest concern to 20 of the 28 European member states.
Despite the UK being accused of xenophobia during the Brexit campaign, it emerged that many other EU countries – 13 in total - were far more concerned about the impact of mass migration than the UK.
Estonia topped the list, with 73 per cent saying it was the most important issue facing the union, followed by Denmark (71 per cent), the Czech Republic (67 per cent), Latvia (67 per cent), Hungary (67 per cent), Malta (62 per cent), the Netherlands (62 per cent), Slovakia (59 per cent) and Sweden (59 per cent).
Bulgaria (57 per cent), Germany (57 per cent), Slovenia (54 per cent) and Lithuania (53 per cent) were also more worried about it than Britain, which was on 51 per cent.
Terrorism was the second biggest concern for most European Union countries and again many member states – 20 in total - were more nervous of terror attacks than the UK, including Ireland.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/694998/Massive-wave-anti-EU-sentiment-nations-including-France-Germany
