Kyle Patrick Camilleri
Wednesday, 3 September 2025, 07:50
Last update: about 1 hour ago
The Spring 2025 Eurobarometer has shown that Maltese people have some of the most favourable views towards the European Union and the European Parliament when compared to citizens from other EU Member States.
This latest Eurobarometer captured what the general public thinks about the European Union and its priorities, following up from a similar Eurobarometer survey carried out across January and February of this year.
With 62% being positive responses, Malta ranked the sixth highest percentage of having a favourable view towards the European Union when asked whether the EU conjures up a positive, neutral, or negative image to them personally.
Younger people were more inclined to have a positive view of the EU; 78% respondents between the ages of 15-24 favoured the Union, as did 69% of those aged 25-39 years old, followed by 57% of 55+ year olds and just 49% of those between the ages of 40-54. Maltese men were more likely to have a positive image (64%) than Maltese women (57%).
Positive image rates also increased amongst Maltese respondents with their total years in education. Only 48% held a positive image of the EU from those who only attained their compulsory education certificates, though this increases to 57% for those with 16-19 years in school and 69% for those with 20+ years of education.
On average, 52% of Europeans across the EU-27 held a positive image of the EU, while 32% had a neutral image of it, and 16% held a negative view. For Maltese, 30% felt they had a neutral image of the EU, while only 8% had a negative image of it.
The five countries with a more positive view of the EU are Portugal (74%), Sweden (73%), Ireland (70%), Denmark (68%), and Luxembourg (67%).
Overall, this Spring Eurobarometer displayed the tied second-highest positive public perception of the European Union at 52%. The all-time high for this biannual survey was 54% in September-October 2021. The last and only other time that 52% of the public shared they have a positive image of the EU was in April-May 2022. This marks just the fifth time that at least 50% of respondents had a positive image of the Union since this question was first asked in June 2012.
Maltese also displayed the third-highest rate of having a positive image of the European Parliament among all other EU countries. 56% of Maltese had a positive perception of the EU institution currently led by Malta’s own Roberta Metsola. Union-wide, 41% of respondents said they have a positive image of the European Parliament, 39% have a neutral image, and 18% have a negative image of it.
Views over the European Parliament were observed to be very stable across the board among Maltese, across nearly all demographics. Significant variances can be noted among people still studying (68%) as well as among 15-24-year-olds, though there is naturally great overlap between these two demographics.
While around 55% Maltese thought positively about the European Parliament, 84% of Maltese respondents felt that the EP should play a more important role. This was significantly more than the EU average 62% who felt the same.
When asked what topics the European Parliament should address in priority, most Maltese (38%) mentioned action that addresses inflation, rising prices, and the cost of living. Next up, 29% appealed for more support for public health, 28% pointed towards democracy and rule of law, and 26% called for action against climate change. Respondents were asked to select no more than four listed responses.
Maltese also topped all EU countries in believing that their country has on balance benefitted from its EU membership. The EU-wide perceived benefit of EU membership stands at 73% while Malta’s statistic sits at a staggering 93%. In this regard, the most popular ways as to how Maltese believe to have benefited from joining the EU were that the Union contributes to economic growth (52% marked this as one of their maximum three listed answers), that the EU has brought new working opportunities to the Maltese people (38%), and that multilateral cooperation between Malta and other EU countries has improved through EU membership (29%).
The most popular EU-wide answers to this question were that the EU contributes to protecting peace and strengthening security (37%), that EU membership bolsters cooperation between EU countries (36%), and that the Union contributes to economic growth (29%).
Throughout this survey, Maltese participants displayed support for more collaboration between EU countries in the future to solve standing and emerging issues.
95% of Maltese believe that the EU Member States should be more united to face current global challenges in comparison to 90% across the continent. Meanwhile, 93% of Maltese feel that the EU needs more means to face current global challenges, as opposed to a smaller yet significant 77% of Europeans.
During the presentation of these results, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said in her address that EU citizens are optimistic on the Union’s direction and outlook.
“People want a European Union that does more to protect them; one that acts decisively on issues that matter to them,” Metsola said.
The European Parliament President added that 9/10 of EU citizens want more unity and collaboration between the EU Member States, as well as for the European Parliament to have more say in the EU’s long-term budget and in its control over the EU’s spending.
Overall, Maltese people believe that things are heading in the right direction in Malta (52%) and in the European Union (51%). 32% and 21% respectively believe things area moving in the wrong direction, 15% and 19% respectively fell in between, while 1% were unsure on Malta’s direction and 9% didn’t know how to answer on the EU’s direction.
This outlook was much more pessimistic throughout the EU – both at EU level and national level. Whether the EU is heading in the right or wrong direction is virtually split evenly among the general EU population (42% optimistic v 43% pessimistic). Meanwhile, when asked the same question for their own respective home countries, 52% of Europeans on average believe things back home are moving in the wrong direction, but 37% believe otherwise.
That being said, people are generally bullish on the future of the EU; 77% feel optimistic towards the EU’s future, as do 66% of EU citizens overall, in contrast to 21% of Maltese and 31% of Europeans who feel pessimistic.
Most Europeans (73%) and Maltese (88%) also said they are in favour of the EU diversifying its revenue sources for the EU’s long-term budgets, i.e., become less dependent on Member States’ contributions and base this off other sources such as greenhouse gas emissions or company profits.
This survey was carried out through the completion of 26,410 face-to-face interviews with European 15+ year olds earlier this May. A total of 501 of these interviews were done with Maltese people to capture these sentiments across the Maltese islands.
The themes of this Spring Eurobarometer will be touched upon during the 2025 State of the Union address next week.