The European Union’s reputation has suffered among Germans but general approval for the bloc remains high, according to a recent survey.
At 34.6 per cent, twice as many Germans as two years ago said the country could better achieve its political goals without the EU, according to the survey from the Heinrich Boell Foundation and Das Progressive Zentrum (The Progressive Centre) think tank.
The authors attribute the growing disappointment in part to the slow pace of coronavirus vaccine procurement by the EU.
But more than two-thirds of Germans still see EU membership as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.
In purely economic terms, the benefits outweigh the costs in the eyes of more than half of the respondents.
However, the data showed a majority consider Germany’s financial contribution to the EU budget to be too high.
When asked about the most important priorities coming up in European policy, most survey participants ranked a common asylum policy first.
Many respondents also said the enforcement of the rule of law, minimum social standards and climate policy were important.
The introduction of a health union or a European army were considered less relevant.
The opinion research institute Civey polled 5,000 people online in May 2021 for the survey.
