Europeans Hold More Negative Than Positive Views of US, but Far Less Negative Than Toward Russia or China

Negative views of the United States among Europeans have risen sharply, with 74 percent now holding an unfavourable opinion, according to a Eurobarometer survey published on May 8, 2026. The share of people with an unfavourable opinion of the United States has risen 14 percentage points since October-November 2025. Just 24 percent of Europeans view the country positively, the survey found.

By comparison, 83 percent of EU citizens polled held a negative view of Russia. Sixty-one percent held a negative view of China and 41 percent held a negative view of India. The poll was conducted from mid-March to early April 2026 across all 27 EU member states, with more than 26,000 people interviewed.

It was based on polling across the EU's 27 member states. Seventy-three percent of respondents described the European Union as a place of stability in a troubled world. Eighty-one percent backed a common EU policy on defence and security, with support for deeper EU cooperation on defence and security reaching the highest level in 20 years.

The European Commission declined to comment on the survey findings. "The US is an important partner for us, and we work with them constructively on all the topics of common interest we have with them," said commission spokeswoman Arianna Podesta. com reported that the shift coincides with a period of acute transatlantic tensions as US President Donald Trump has targeted the EU with waves of tariffs, threatened Greenland's sovereignty and launched a new war in the Middle East.