News sources around Europe have been reacting to a study by US Pew Research Center that found a crisis in confidence amongst EU citizens in the European Union project. The study refers to the EU as “the new sick man of Europe” and found that only 45 percent of EU citizens are now favorable towards the Union, down from 60 percent in 2012.

“The prolonged economic crisis has created centrifugal forces that are pulling European public opinion apart, separating the French from the Germans and the Germans from everyone else,” reads the Pew Research Center Study. A growing divide between the southern nations, like Spain, Italy and Greece, and Germany is also noted. Populations in these countries “are becoming ever more estranged as evidenced by their frustration with Brussels, Berlin and the perceived unfairness of the economic system.”

The study deems “the public’s generally glum mood about economic conditions” as the main driver of negative feelings towards the EU and also draws attention to the International Monetary Fund's gloomy forecast for the Union's economic fortunes, with the prediction that the EU's economy will still be performing at below pre-financial crisis levels in 2018.

Despite the apparent effects of austerity, a great deal of European public opinion still backs cuts in spending as the best way to deal with the economic problems, according to the Pew Research Center. “Five of eight countries surveyed still think the best way to solve their country’s economic problems is to cut government spending, not spend more money.”

The single currency, however, retains popular support, with all five of the eurozone countries in the study having 60 percent or more of the public in favor of keeping the euro.

The Pew Research Center also gives a little context to the “sick man of Europe” label: coined in the 19th Century, reportedly by Czar Nicholas I of Russia, to describe the ailing Ottoman Empire. After its final collapse during the WWI, Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk (Father of the Turks), led the foundation of the modern, democratic Turkey of today from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

The study was carried out in eight EU countries – France, Germany, Spain, Britain, Italy, Greece, The Czech Republic and Poland – among 7,646 respondents from March 2 to March 27 this year.

Read the Pew Research Center Study's The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union

The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project carries out public opinion surveys on subjects ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. Over 330,000 interviews in 59 countries have been conducted as part of the project’s work.

editor@romania-insider.com