Two days before the SOTEU speech by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the latest results of the Eurobarometer poll were published on 11 September. The survey was commissioned by the European Commission, which also issued an official press release on the main conclusions to be drawn from it, the author recalled.
According to
Ákos Bence Gát, "a closer look at the results of the survey, also broken down by member states, shows that there is indeed a strong consensus among Europeans on the provision of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and the reception of Ukrainian refugees." "However, the country-specific data also show that citizens in different Member States are much more divided on whether the EU should introduce new economic sanctions against Russia," he said.
The researcher pointed out that the percentage of those who fully support sanctions is only 46% on average in the EU, while a further 25% are more inclined to support sanctions. In several EU member states, the combined total of those who fully agree and those who tend to agree is less than 50%," he added.
"Even so, even when counting the two categories of respondents together, those in favour of sanctions are in a minority in five member states, namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia,"he stressed. "If we look only at the proportion of those who are fully in favour of sanctions, we see only around 25% in these member states," he added.
It is also important to nuance the picture suggested by the Commission's press release on EU financial and economic support to Ukraine, the researcher noted. "On average across the EU, only 26% of Europeans said they were clearly in favour of this type of EU action, while 38% were more reserved and tended to support it," he said.
On the question on the purchase and supply of military equipment for Ukraine and the financing of military training, only Finland has a majority (51%) in favour of such measures. "In eight Member States, namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia, the combined support and inclination to support is below 50%," he added.
