The US president’s Middle East aggression, threats against Greenland, vows to withdraw troops from European bases and scepticism on the future of Nato had also prompted a growing European pragmatism, the report said.
“Across the continent, there’s clear support for reducing dependence on Washington,” said Jana Kobzová, a co-author and ECFR senior policy fellow.
“Europeans are increasingly open to higher defence spending and, crucially, show a striking degree of confidence that neighbouring countries would come to their aid in a crisis.”.
Majorities in every country were no longer confident the US would come to their aid in an attack.
Europeans were now on average 4% more likely to support higher national defence spending than last year, the survey found, with Italy the only country where a clear majority remained opposed.
On average, 47% of respondents backed the ideal of collective EU borrowing for finance greater defence spending, with 35% opposed to it.
Despite rising energy costs, 44% of Europeans said it would be a “rather bad” or “very bad” idea to resume importing oil and gas from Russia. »
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