EU scepticism is on the rise across Europe, reveals survey

With just 15 days to go before Britons decide whether they would want to remain with the EU or not, a Pew Research Centre report suggests that Euroscepticism is on the rise across Europe. Some of the Brussels-based institution's largest member states have voiced doubts about the union, the report revealed.

More than 10,000 people from 10 major European countries participated in the survey conducted between 4 April and 12 May 2016. The report released on Tuesday (7 June), found that about 51% have a favourable opinion of the EU while 42% want some powers returned from Brussels to national governments and only 19% favoured to give Brussels more power.

However, more than 70% of the people in nine EU nations were of the view that UK should remain within the union. Another survey by TNS, released on Monday (6 June) – in contrast to Pew's – found that 43% people were in favour of a Brexit, while 41% of the people wanted the UK to remain. Over 79% of Germans, surveyed by TNS also felt that the UK should stay in the union.

Meanwhile, the Pew study indicated that EU favourability was down in France by 17 percentage points and in Spain by 16 points. Germany, UK, Italy had single digit drops with eight, seven and six percentage points, respectively.

The Pew Research Center report highlighted that 92% of Greeks were unhappy with the way the union handled the economic crisis. Age-wise, younger people are more favorable of being part of the union, while older people especially those above 50 years of age favoured leaving the union.