Half of Europeans dissatisfied with EU pandemic management

Fifty percent of Europeans are not satisfied with measures taken by the European Union to fight the coronavirus pandemic, versus 48 percent who are satisfied, a Eurobarometer poll released Thursday showed.

Germany was the most dissatisfied country, with 63 percent of respondents unhappy with how the bloc dealt with the emergency, followed by France on 60 percent and Greece on 58 percent. Danes were the most satisfied, with 81 percent happy with the EU’s performance, followed by the Netherlands (74 percent) and Malta (73 percent).

The poll was conducted between March and April, when the EU’s vaccination rollout was stuttering compared with the U.K.’s or the U.S’s.

Despite the levels of dissatisfaction with Brussels’ handling of the coronavirus, 74 percent of those surveyed still said the EU “should have more competences to deal with crises” like the pandemic. The number was slightly lower than in a previous poll, conducted last fall.

Thirty-one percent of those surveyed said the pandemic had already impacted their personal income, while a further 26 percent said they thought it would do so in the future. The financial impact of COVID-19 was felt more strongly in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, like in Greece, Bulgaria and Italy, where respectively 50 percent, 48 percent and 45 percent of the population said their finances were already affected by the crisis. On that metric, Denmark and the Netherlands performed strongest, with 76 and 67 percent of the population saying the coronavirus would have no impact on their income.

Still, 58 percent of Europeans said they believed the health benefits of lockdowns and other coronavirus prevention measures in their countries outweighed the economic damage the restrictions might have wrought.

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