European solidarity at a crossroads. Citizen views of the future of the European Union

During the last decade, the EU was hit by a series of unprecedented and interrelated crises: the great recession, the sovereign debt crisis, the so-called migrant crisis, and Brexit. On top of this, in March 2020, Europe, like the rest of the world, was stricken by the COVID19 pandemic, with dramatic consequences for both public health and economic growth. In a strange turn, however, these crises seem to have brought the Europeans closer. The following report analyses the relevant results of a public opinion survey conducted in a sample of ten EU member states – Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden – in July 2019, just after the European Parliament (EP) elections held in May 2019. The findings seem to show that European public opinion is more prone to support EU-level initiatives aimed at strengthening European solidarity than is commonly depicted by many political parties and large sectors of the media.