Do Europeans think it was right to admit Hungary to the EU?

A YouGov survey examines attitudes to the admission of all countries since 2000

In our March edition of European Political Monthly, YouGov asks Europeans in the five largest EU nations – France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain – whether they think it was right or wrong to admit each of the countries that have joined the EU since 2000.

The French prove to be most negative across the board, with net ‘right to admit’ scores that are often far lower than those given by other national publics.

However, in only one case do more people say it was wrong than right to admit a given country: in France, regarding Romania. Even here the French public are almost evenly split, with 27% saying admission was the right decision and 30% saying it was wrong, giving a net score of -3, effectively a tie.

Romania comes second from bottom in all other countries’ ranking, albeit often with much higher numbers, ranging from +8 in Germany to +49 in Poland.

Instead, it is Hungary who comes bottom of the list for all nations other than France. French people and Germans are closely split on whether it was right to admit Hungary to the EU (+1 and +4 respectively), while scores are notably higher in Italy (+26) and Spain (+33).

While Poles also tend to say it was right (44%) rather than wrong (27%) to admit Hungary, this net score of +17 represents a dramatically lower score than Poles give to any other country.

See the full results here

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Photo: Getty