This article is part of a series on global leadership approval ratings. Read more on approval of the U.S. and China among NATO countries and on approval of Ukraine and Russia in their wider region.
LONDON — The leadership of the European Union continues to receive the backing from residents in most of its member states, with six in 10 EU residents saying they approve of the job the bloc’s leaders are doing. This is largely unchanged since 2019, although it is down slightly from a median of 64% in 2023.
The recent stability follows a period of gradual improvement from the 40% approving in 2012, after the global financial crisis. However, median disapproval of Brussels ticked up to 35% last year, its highest point since 2016.
Most Member State Residents Approve of Brussels
Among the EU's 27 member states, 19 recorded majority approval ratings for Brussels in 2025. Of the remaining eight, attitudes were closely divided in most, with the exception of Greece — the only member state where disapproval of Brussels (59%) was more than 10 percentage points higher than approval (34%).
The EU's support remains strongest in the three Nordic countries in the EU: Denmark (75% approve), Finland (74%) and Sweden (73%). Lithuania's approval rating rose by 13 points to 74% last year, making it one of the bloc's most enthusiastic supporters for the first time in nearly two decades of polling.
Of the eight countries where EU leadership approval fell short of 50%, only Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary posted ratings lower than they did a decade ago. By contrast, Brussels’ rating is now higher in Cyprus, Greece and Slovakia than it was in 2015.
EU Remains Most Liked Major Power Among Members
Brussels still commands the highest median approval ratings among EU residents of any major power 扣扣传媒tracks. The EU first overtook Germany in 2019, the year after Angela Merkel announced she would step down as chancellor, and it has maintained that lead consistently since 2022, a year after Merkel left office. Berlin's approval rating within the EU held steady at 54% in 2025.
U.S. leadership approval, by contrast, has fallen to 20% in the first year of President Donald Trump's second term. This is broadly in line with the 2020 rating in the final year of Trump’s first administration (19%) along with the end of the George W. Bush administration between 2007 and 2008 (19%).
Relations between Brussels and Washington have been strained in the past year. Tensions grew over U.S. tariffs imposed against the EU and much of the rest of the world at the start of 2025, as well as threats from Washington to disengage from NATO over low defense spending by several European allies. And in December, a leaked U.S. strategy document claimed that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” arguing for “cultivating resistance” within the continent to its current trajectory.
Approval of China’s leadership across the EU increased by eight points to 22%, its highest level since 2019 but still low overall. Meanwhile, Russia’s approval within the EU ticked up marginally, from 7% to 10%, for the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Bottom Line
The EU's approval rating within the bloc remains solid at 60% — elevated by historical standards. Most member states show majority support, and Brussels outperforms every other major power 扣扣传媒tracks, signaling a significant degree of unity across member states.
However, Europe faces simultaneous pressures from a strained relationship with Washington, the grinding war in Ukraine, persistent economic pressures and high living costs. Whether the 2023 peak in approval ratings represents a hard ceiling or a temporary pause depends partly on these external forces.
Yet internal dynamics are also important. The EU has seen widespread farmers’ protests in the past few years, one of which swept into Brussels last month during a key EU summit, reflecting anger at a proposed free-trade deal with Mercosur, a South American trading bloc. The 2024 European Parliament elections also delivered gains for far-right parties skeptical of deeper integration across France, Germany and Italy. National elections loom in 2026 in several member states, including Hungary, the bloc's most persistent obstacle to unity.
The next 12 months will show whether this solid rating slips into decline, or whether the EU can rediscover the upward momentum that defined much of the 2010s.
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