European Affluent Urge to Consolidate EU-ties
The European affluent are generally more positive towards their country’s membership of the European Union than the non-affluent.
Among the affluent, 19% are in favour of working for the formation of a single European government, while this is only 15% among the non-affluent. The non-affluent Europeans are more likely to want their country to leave the EU as opposed to their more prosperous counterparts. These are some key findings of a major study among the affluent and non-affluent in seventeen EU-countries conducted by Ipsos.
Four out of the Big 5 countries in Europe (Germany, Italy, France and Spain) have a more positive attitude towards staying in the EU and increase its powers or to even work towards a single European government.
However, with the upcoming Brexit Referendum on June 23rd, the UK-affluent have a different opinion on EU-citizenship compared to other member states. The majority of the British affluent want to stay in the EU, though many (40%) want to reduce its powers. A quarter of the wealthy British wants to leave the EU.
Turkish affluent eager to join the EU
Four non-EU countries were asked their opinion about what they think their country’s long-term policy should be. Two-thirds of the Turkish affluent want to become a member of the EU, whereas the other three countries (Norway, Russia and Switzerland) this is less than a quarter.
Affluent believe terrorism is a key issue for the EU
The affluent believe that the EU should be the main decision-maker when it comes to terrorism. Equally important is the responsibility for budget control across EU countries. Issues that should lie under their own government’s control is culture & education, unemployment and agriculture.