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ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM - TREND ANALYSIS
23. A review of how British attitudes towards the European Union have changed over 20 years found that:
"From the early 1980's until 1991 there was a steady increase in the public's acceptance of EU membership, from less than half supporting continued membership in 1984 to over three-quarters by 1991. The impression during that period was of a population slowly becoming accustomed to and even perhaps comfortable with, being part of the European Community. However, in 1992 there was a small but significant fall in acceptance and…by 1997 the secular upward trend had been reversed" (Evans 2003).
Evans suggests there has been a steady decrease in support up until the mid-1990s and then views tend to stabilise until the late 90s, concluding that the upward trend was feature of the early 1990s. Examination of the more recent data from 1999 to 2005 (see Table 4) suggests that attitudes towards membership have continued to remain stable.
24. However, when asked the straightforward question of whether membership of the EU is 'a good thing' the European trend data from the late 90s to the present indicates that support for the EU in the UK was rising again (see Graph 6 below). The survey showed that 42% of Britons regard the UK's membership of the EU as a good thing. This compares with just 25% in 2000 and signals a rise of 12 points in just two years. It is also the highest approval rating for EU membership in the UK for a decade.
25. Although this rise was viewed positively by the European Commission and a number of commentators, the Europe wide survey shows that only Finland, Latvia and Austria have populations who are less supporting of their country's EU membership and it also well below the EU-25 average of 55%.
Graph 6. Is your country's membership of the EU "a good thing" and has the UK benefited?
Source: Standard Eurobarometer 65.2 (2006)
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