On Wednesday 8 June, Pew Research Center published results of a survey held in 10 countries in the EU which confirmed the negative trend in Europe when it comes to declining trust in the EU. According to the research, merely 51% of the people have a favorable view of the EU, while a large 47% has an unfavorable view of the EU. Significant differences are seen between countries. The rising Eurosceptic sentiment takes place in Europe in the context of the refugee crisis, while still slowly recovering from its financial crises and just two weeks before the UK will have a referendum on leaving the EU, which could lead to a domino effect and further speculation on the disintegration of the EU if the UK would leave, as confirmed by an earlier report of VoteWatchEurope in April. 

Recent polls indicate a narrow majority of people in the UK will vote to leave. Despite the negative sentiment, a strong majority of all EU states do want the UK to stay, as 70% considered it as a bad thing if they would leave.

On average, only 19% in the EU favors further integration while 27% wants to stop integration and a large 42% wants some powers to be returned to the state. When it comes to differences between countries, Poland is still overwhelmingly positive with 72% having a positive view, Germany is divided (50%) and countries such as Spain (47%), the UK (44), France (38%) and Greece (27%) are rather negative. It shows strong anti-EU views are not just held in the UK but also in one of the founding members of the EU, France.

At the same day, a national poll in Denmark showed a majority of people wants to have a referendum on the EU as well. Earlier, a poll had showed that a majority of people in Sweden would like to have a referendum as well if the UK would leave the EU. The trend is troublesome, and could get further dynamics if the UK would indeed vote on 23 June 2016 to leave the EU.  When it comes to the Denmark, earlier the Danes had voted in a referendum against abolishing opt-outs they had when it comes to certain home affairs topics on 3 December 2015. In April, the Dutch have also voted against the Association Agreement with Ukraine in a referendum on 6 April, which was considered by some as a vote against the EU itself. 

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Click here for the report by Pew Research Center
Click here for the report by VoteWatchEurope. 
Click here for the Standard Eurobarometer 84, that provides the most recent public opinion research on the faith that European have in the EU.
Click here and here for the Swedish and Danish polls.

For more background information on the "Brexit" Referendum, click here, here and here.

For recent polls on the "Brexit" Referendum click here.