There is growing support for closer cooperation with the EU from the UK public, as an increasing number of Britons are trusting the EU while more distrust their home government on handling foreign policy, according to the British Foreign Policy Group’s 2023 Annual Survey of UK Public Opinion on Foreign Policy released on Wednesday.
According to the findings, 61% of Britons support reducing barriers to trade in goods and services with the EU, followed by cooperation on European foreign policy and regional security (46%), joint research collaboration and academic exchanges (45%), cooperation on broader global geopolitical issues (43%), new agreements to facilitate UK-EU freedom of movement of people (43%), and cooperation on refugees and asylum seekers (42%).
The survey’s results also indicate that the public’s distrust in the government’s handling of foreign policy is at 54%, with over half of the participants not having faith in the government to take decisions in the public’s interest regarding foreign policy.
In contrast, a majority (53%) of the UK public voted that the EU is the most widely trusted group regarding its capacity and willingness to act responsibly in the world.
“Support for the UK’s defensive posture is strongly and widely held, and as the Brexit debate slowly fades in importance in the UK’s political debate, the Ukraine crisis has helped create the space and desire for the UK to cooperate more with the EU, even among Leave voters,” Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group, told EURACTIV.
Interestingly, if a referendum were called on the country’s return to the EU, 51% of Britons would vote to rejoin, according to a YouGov poll released on Tuesday.
However, while the public favours further cooperation with the EU, the kind of cooperation they are looking for may only be when it favours their own interests.
“Britons want to pick and choose what they do and don’t cooperate with the EU on,” said Aspinall, adding that Britons are most supportive of cooperation where there is seen to be a clear, urgent, and self-interested need for the UK to do so but on areas such as space exploration or humanitarian projects, which pose a less direct challenge to Britons’ everyday lives, they are more reluctant to support cooperation.
“In short, they want to cooperate when it’s in their own interests to do so.”
Currently, the UK and the EU are attempting to work on several projects, most notably the UK’s membership renewal in Horizon Europe.
While the nation and the union have yet to strike a deal, it was recently confirmed that scientists and academic researchers could reapply to the European Research Council (ERC) for grants if the UK rejoins.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)