European Union citizens want more unified and bold leadership, survey suggests

[AP Photo]

Citizens across the European Union want more unified, stronger and ambitious leadership of the 27-nation bloc as it faces military threats, economic pressures and climate instability, according to an official EU poll.

The Eurobarometer survey was conducted before U.S. President Donald Trump’s ordered a military operation that captured the former Venezuelan leader and rattled European nations by threatening to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. It did not specifically ask about Washington, NATO or China. More than 2,600 EU citizens were asked questions in mostly face-to-face meetings in November. They overwhelmingly supported a more muscular EU — 69% say they wanted an expanded security role in global crises, 87% a more diplomatically aggressive Brussels on topics like peace and climate change, and 90% called for a bloc more unified to tackle key issues. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.

The poll found a majority of EU citizens are “highly worried” about conflicts near the bloc, climate change-fueled natural disasters and cyberwarfare. The results broadly align with the stated goals and ambitions of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has been hawkish on trade and defense and called for solidifying EU power in Brussels.