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A decade after the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, that sent shockwaves through the continent, Europeans appear more supportive of the bloc than they were during the Brexit referendum campaign.
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New polling from Pew Research shows favourable views of the EU have increased across much of Europe since 2016. This is despite the rise of parties critical of Brussels in multiple European countries.
The data indicates a shift from politics in Europe that surrounded the Brexit vote, when calls for referendums to leave were not limited to the UK.
At the time, France’s Marine Le Pen advocated for a vote on French membership of the bloc, while Dutch politician Geert Wilders called for a referendum on whether the Netherlands should leave the EU.
In Greece, public confidence in EU institutions was at a low following the eurozone debt crisis and bailout negotiations. In Italy, the Five Star Movement also advocated for a referendum on Italy’s membership of the eurozone.
According to Pew’s figures, that picture looks different today.
Its data shows that median favourability towards the EU across eight countries it has tracked since 2016 has risen from 49% to 62%.
The increase can be seen across several major European countries. In Germany, favourable views of the EU rose from 50% in 2016 to 68% in 2026. In France, support increased from 38% to 52%, while in the Netherlands it climbed from 51% to 63%.
In the UK itself, despite leaving the bloc in 2020, favourable views of the EU have risen from 45% at the time of the referendum to 67% today.
Shift over time
Pew’s data shows that support for the EU jumped sharply in the year directly after the Brexit referendum, with median favourability in countries surveyed rising from 49% in 2016 to 60% in 2017.
This stands in contradiction with theories that persisted at the time which suggested Brexit would trigger the unravelling of European Union and prompt other countries to leave.
Favourability climbed further following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, reaching record highs in many of the countries studied.
At the same time, rising favourability towards the EU does not mean eurosceptic parties have disappeared.
In many countries, these parties have actually increased their vote share and in some cases, substantially so.
According to national voting data, Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) increased its vote share in federal elections from 12.6% in 2017 to 20.8% in 2025.
In France, the National Rally and its allies won around 33% of the vote in the first round of the 2024 legislative election. Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) emerged as the largest party in the Netherlands in the 2023 general election after years of campaigning against immigration and criticising Brussels.
Analysts at the London School of Economics and Political Science have noted that many Eurosceptic parties have adopted their rhetoric from advocating for full withdrawal from the European Union to reforming it from within.
For example, France’s National Rally shifted its focus from explicit calls to leave the EU toward restoring border controls and prioritising French above European law. In the Netherlands, Wilders has placed greater emphasis on immigration and asylum than pursuing a Dutch “Nexit.”
One exception is the AfD, which has kept withdrawal scenarios on its agenda even as other parties have quietly shifted the debate all together.
According to researchers, “when Brexit began to look less and less like what the Brexiteers had promised, nationalist parties and politicians appeared to be discouraged from pursuing anti-EU and exit policies and instead focused on policies for EU reforms from within.”
Support strongest among youth and left
While support for the EU has increased overall, significant generational divides remain.
In Italy, 80% of adults under the age of 35 view the EU favourably, compared with 56% of those over 50. Similar patterns can be seen in several other European countries surveyed by Pew, where younger respondents were generally more positive about the bloc than those older.
Politics also continues to shape attitudes. In Poland, 86% of people on the political left reported a favourable view of the EU, compared with just 42% on the right — one of the largest ideological gaps recorded by Pew research.
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