The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.
Iglesias and Tsipras, Madrid 2014. Demotix/Czuko Williams. All rights reserved.Trust in the European Union (EU) is falling amongst its citizens. Opinion polls--including the ones promoted by the European Commission itself through its Eurobarometer--clearly indicate the effects of the financial crisis on support for European institutions by European citizens. In short, they point to a dramatic drop in citizens’ trust in the EU, going from 57% in the Spring of 2007 to 31% in the Autumn of 2013 (Eurobarometer no. 80).
Growing mistrust is linked to a dramatic increase in the number of citizens for whom the EU conjures up a negative image, a percentage that doubled (from 15% to 28%), while the proportion of those who have a positive image dropped from (52 to 31%) between 2007 and 2013. The proportion of those who are optimistic about the future development of the EU dropped meanwhile from 2/3 to half of the population, with the percentage of pessimists reaching 2/3 in southern European Portugal, Greece and Cyprus. The decline in trust indeed accompanies the shift in assessment of the situation of the national economy, with a steep increase in those who consider it as totally bad--approximating 100% in southern European countries.
