The refugee crisis is driving disillusionment and anti-European Union (EU) sentiment across the continent, according to the Pew Research Center.
Euroskepticism has spread like wildfire, with citizens across Europe doubting the EU’s ability to come to grips with the twin crises of the euro zone and the mass influx of refugees.
The research comes with little more than two weeks to go before the UK votes on whether it will remain or leave the EU. The polls are a dead heat, but if Britain leaves, it would be one of the biggest blows to the EU in its history. (RELATED: New Report Explodes Central Argument Against Brexit)
In every country Pew surveyed, the vast majority of people thought the EU had done a terrible job managing the refugee crisis. “This includes 94 percent of Greeks, 88 percent of Swedes and 77 percent of Italians. The strongest approval of EU management of the refugee crisis is in the Netherlands, but that backing is a tepid 31 percent,” Pew stated.
EU member states have a huge appetite for transferring powers from Brussels to national governments and opposing more centralization. Two-thirds of Brits and Greeks, along with substantial minorities, want some powers returned from the EU.
“A median of just 51 percent across 10 EU countries surveyed has a favorable view of the European Union. A median of 42 percent in these 10 nations want more power returned to their national capitals, while only 19 percent favor giving Brussels more power and 27 percent favor the status quo,” said Pew. (RELATED: Poll: Brexit Could Spark Wave Of Anti-EU Referendums Across Europe)
The study was conducted in 10 EU nations with 10,491 respondents from April 4 to May 12, 2016. The countries included in the research account for 80 percent of the EU population and 82 percent of the EU’s GDP.
The EU’s approval numbers tanked from 2012-2013 thanks to the faltering European economy but recovered slightly in 2014-2015 when the EU experienced some growth. The biggest collapse was in France, where EU favorability dropped by 17 percentage points.
The Greeks are the most dissatisfied with the EU’s economic policy. Greece has been subjected to years of austerity and dealt with a stream of refugees coming from Turkey.
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