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Support for the European Union: hand in hand with support for more aid?

Published 26 August 2019 in Surveys

Our data shows that approval of France’s membership of the European Union (EU) has strong correlation to positive views on global poverty and development.

49% of French people approve or strong approve France’s membership of the EU. 34% disapprove or strongly disapprove. 18% do not have an opinion.

70% of those French people who support an increase in development aid are part of those who agree with French membership of the EU, compared to 28% of French people who disagree with EU membership.

56% of those who want to see a reduction in development aid disapprove with France’s EU membership compared to 20% of those who want to see an increase.

Support for France’s membership of the EU appears to be a major factor in support for increasing development aid to the poorest countries. This link is also fed by other factors, since those people expressing both opinions are those with the highest levels of education, income, urban location.

Voters for (center candidate and future President) Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the 2017 Presidential elections had the highest levels of support for French membership of the EU (81%) compared to voters for Marine le Pen, with 18%. There were fewer supporters of (far-left candidate) Jean-Luc Mélenchon than of (traditional right candidate) François Fillon who supported French membership of the EU.

This data comes from our survey conducted by the YouGov Institute and piloted by the research team at University College London and the University of Birmingham as part of the project Aid Attitudes Tracker which measures the evolution of opinions and behaviors on issues of international solidarity in four countries.