THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REPORT. Europe in a period of transition

41 European citizens and their opinion on the European project during the pandemic María Adela Pallares Never before has a crisis hit as hard as the crisis stemming from COVID-19. Its magnitude, simultaneity and global nature means that this has already been con- sidered as the greatest recession since the Great Depres- sion in the 1930s. In Europe, after the health situation improved during the summer, 2020 drew to a close with an acceleration of the “second wave” and a worsening of the pandem- ic. The situation deteriorated during the first quarter of 2021: new variants appeared, triggering new waves and, as a consequence, new restrictive measures were put in place, including further lockdowns. This crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic rep- resents an enormous challenge for the European Union (EU), not only due to its vast span but also because it must be managed within a context of several overlapping crises for the block, such as the tail-end of the Euro crisis, the refugee crisis and Brexit. At the same time, it is also an opportunity to demonstrate the added value of an organisation such as the EU to mitigate and solve the consequences of a crisis such as coronavirus. COVID-19 has generated an unprecedented crisis that rocked the foundations of the world’s political and economic systems and will leave an impression on the new normal. In this context, it makes sense to look at how the crisis has affected citizens’ opinions of its sys- tems and political institutions, and particularly how it has affected the idea of the European project. We will attempt to provide some answers identifying the general trends provided by 4 studies: − The survey entitled El impacto de la crisis de la pan- demia COVID-19 en la opinión pública europea ( The impact of COVID-19 pandemic crisis on European public opinion ) carried out by the Istituto Cattaneo for the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES, its acronym in German). The study, carried out in 6 EU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden) in two waves (during and after the pande- mic), aimed to investigate the impact of the crisis on citizens’ attitudes and political leanings revolving around four different aspects: 1) assessment of go- vernment policies and party strategies to address the pandemic; 2) the change in preferences in terms of economic policy; 3) trust in institutions and in other people; 4) the likelihood of trusting the information filtered and shared by the epistemic communities or the different sources of fake news or conspiracy theo- ries.The results available so far were collected during the first study phase, between December 2020 and January 2021.