A survey from the largest financial services company in Europe has found that more Germans see membership in the European Union as a disadvantage for their country than those who see it as a positive, as the public mood turns against the bloc.
“The mood is bad, the outlook bleak,” a report from the Munich-based multinational financial services company Allianz said, following a survey of 6,000 Europeans ahead of the EU Parliament elections next week.
The firm said that a notable shift was seen in Germany, where pessimism about the economy and cynicism towards Brussels is rising, following the “French example” of negativity.
According to the survey, while Germany has been “pro-European” in previous years, attitudes turned negative this year, with the EU having a net rating of negative 2.9 per cent.
Most strikingly, just 29 per cent of Germans felt that there were more advantages to being a member of the European Union than not, with Allianz noting that “the trend reversal is obvious.”
The view of ‘Europe’ was even more dour in France, with fewer than one in five saying that EU membership was a benefit to France. Furthermore, French perception of the bloc stood at net percentage of negative 22.3 and minus 18.3 per cent for the euro currency.
The increased pessimism towards Europe comes amid growing concerns over the economy and the cost of living crisis continuing to bedevil the bloc. The report found that Germans have “never been so pessimistic” about their economy, with the current situation being seen as worse now than during the coronavirus lockdowns of 2020 or the initial economic shocks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“It seems that the message that the geo-economic framework is currently shifting to Germany’s disadvantage has finally sunk in,” Allianz said.
Ahead of the European Parliament elections, the survey found that inflation, the cost of living, jobs and the economy as a whole were the most pressing issues for most voters, with economic growth being by far the most important individual topic at 50.5 per cent citing it as their chief concern.
Conversely, the so-called “green transition”, despite being a top agenda item for elites in Brussels, was not among the top listed priorities, with just one in five listing the green agenda as a top priority.
The report claimed, therefore, that the next European Commission should focus on the singular goal of economic growth to rally support for the bloc as a whole.
“If the next EU Commission listens and streamlines its several initiatives and programs towards growth it might become quite successful, lifting the image of the EU in the process,” it said.
Allianz also noted a growing sentiment among Europeans that more focus should be placed on revitalising domestic industry rather than the globalist policies of free trade and offshoring manufacturing.
A total of 53.1 per cent of respondents favour the EU reducing its “dependencies, from foreign commodities to technologies, with an active industrial policy.”
The report from the German financial services firm backs up findings released from the EU-US Forum, which found that the dire economic situation in Europe was the top concern for voters in the lead-up to the EU Parliament elections and was a key driver in a “vast conservative shift” happening across the bloc as Europeans grow sceptical of the high tax and high regulation of leftist governments in Brussels and national capitals.