A new Eurobarometer survey was released on 5 August 2019. It shows a strong general increase in citizens’ positive perception of the European Union. The survey was conducted by means of 27,464 face-to-face interviews in the 28 Member States and five candidate countries in June 2019, shortly after the European elections.

According to the survey, trust in the EU is at his highest level since 2014 and remains higher than trust in national governments or parliaments. Trust in the EU increased in 20 Member States, with the highest scores in Lithuania (72%), Denmark (68%) and Estonia (60 %).

Support for the Economic and Monetary Union with one single currency, the euro, has reached a new record high within the Eurozone. Throughout the EU, support for the euro has not changed since the last survey in autumn 2018 and remains at its highest level since spring 2007.

Across the EU, 73% of citizens feel they are citizens of the EU. In all 28 Member States, the majority of respondents feels this way (the national scores range from 93% in Luxembourg to 52% in Bulgaria).

Immigration is still seen as the main concern at the EU level, even though the number of respondents mentioning this concern has decreased since autumn 2018. The survey is marked by a significant rise in concern over climate change and the environment. Climate change, which was ranked fifth in autumn 2018, now ranks second as an issue for the first time. The concern over terrorism, which was ranked first in spring 2017, has once again slightly decreased since autumn 2018 and is now ranked third, together with concerns about the economic situation and the state of Member States’ public finances. 9% of the respondents mention crime as one of their two main concerns (tenth rank). The number of people mentioning concern about crime has remained fairly stable, between 9 and 10%, since spring 2017.