Europeans' Confidence in EU Drops to 6-Year Low, Eurobarometer Survey Says

Europeans’ confidence in the European Union dropped to a six-year low as the 27-nation bloc battled the Greece-led debt crisis, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said their nation’s membership in the EU was “a good thing,” according to the poll of more than 26,000 people released today by the EU executive arm in Brussels. That’s the lowest since 2004 and down from 53 percent in the previous survey six months ago.

The latest poll was conducted in May, when investor concerns about contagion from Greece’s fiscal crisis were pushing up bond yields across southern Europe and threatening to undermine confidence in the euro. The EU and the International Monetary Fund on May 10 crafted an unprecedented loan package worth up to 750 billion euros ($950 billion) to backstop debt- strapped governments and restore faith in the currency.

“Our spring survey, conducted at the height of the crisis, reflects the difficult times and challenges that Europeans faced during the past months,” EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement. “Since then, the EU has taken important and bold steps to restore confidence. As a result, the euro has rebounded and we are now seeing the start of growth in Europe’s major economies.”

Those steps include austerity measures to rein in budget deficits and stress tests on lenders across the region to shore up confidence in the banking sector. The euro has gained more than 6 percent against the dollar since its June low and recent data, including unexpectedly strong German business confidence, have eased concerns that the European economy may be headed back into a recession.

Stronger Supervision

The Eurobarometer poll also showed that 72 percent of Europeans “support a stronger supervision by the EU of the activities of the most important international financial groups,” according to the European Commission, the EU’s Brussels-based executive. That is an increase of four percentage points from the previous Eurobarometer in the autumn of 2009.

The latest survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews in the 27 EU countries between May 5 and May 28.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meera Louis in Brussels at mlouis1@bloomberg.net.

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