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Introductory remarks
For the European Union, the last ten years have
been characterised by a series of crises. A cer-
tain climax to this “cruel decade for Europe” (E.
Macron) was the decision by United Kingdom in
a referendum to leave the EU.
It would appear, however, that preparations
for Brexit negotiations have already led to a new
spirit of togetherness among the remaining
member countries. Yet the question arises as to
the extent to which they can expect support
from their respective populations. After all, the
Brexit result was not least a
citizens’
vote against
the fundamental principles of the EU such as
free movement of workers, and a vote in favour
of re-establishing national control, above all
over national borders.
These themes have also played a dominant
role in other EU countries in the recent past, as
a representative survey carried out in eight EU
countries in autumn 2015 upon the commission
of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung has demonstrat-
ed. It therefore made good sense to repeat this
study in order to determine how citizens in oth-
er EU states were reacting to the Brexit. In addi-
tion to questions already posed in 2015, new
questions were included to determine whether
Brexit was having more of a negative impact on
European integration or whether it might even
contribute to an improvement in the image of
the EU and strengthen the will to integrate.
Just as in 2015, surveys were carried out in
the four founding states of Germany, France,
Italy and the Netherlands, as well as in Spain,
Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Each
national sample comprised 1000 computer-as-
sisted telephone interviews in the Western
European countries, and 500 interviews in the
two Eastern European countries. The target
group was persons eligible to vote.
Interviews for this second study were per-
formed between 5 and 22 May in Germany, be-
tween 17 May and 10 June 2017 in the remaining
The EU in the wake of Brexit.
Results of a representative
survey conducted in eight
EU countries
Jérémie Gagné and Richard Hilmer