Why do EU member states feel positive about the bloc?

There is huge support for EU membership across the bloc, a poll by Kantar has found. The survey looked at public opinion in the 28 member states and found that, in most, support for staying in the EU was over 80 per cent.

In only one country apart from the UK, the Czech Republic, was support lower than 70 per cent – but a preference to remain in the EU was still overwhelmingly ahead of any desire to leave.

In all countries where there were older polls to compare with, there was a shift towards remain.

Is this because of Brexit?

In part. The spectacle of Britain absolutely bungling its exit from the EU can’t have encouraged people to think leaving the EU was a good idea.

Coverage of Britain’s exit in the continental press has mostly portrayed it as a political crisis, and sometimes a complete farce.

Are there any other reasons?

Brexit is one positive reason continental voters might have shifted in favour of EU membership – but the story goes further than that.

There are also arguably what you might call “receding negative reasons” – that is, reasons people didn’t like the EU previously that are no longer as prominent.

Chief among these is the eurozone crisis and the austerity that resulted from it. Though it varied by country, this was generally quite a difficult time for the EU – but it is, at least for now, largely solved. Certainly economic anxiety is less dominating of the news agenda than it was in recent years.

Therefore, people who had negative views about the EU based on their experience of austerity, or perceptions of economic weakness, probably aren’t thinking about those issues as much.

There may be a similar effect in play with the migration crisis, too. In 2015-16 this put great political pressure on several EU countries, and in some cases, Brussels’ response was not popular – particularly around migration quotas. The question of open borders also came under scrutiny in some countries.

But with the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe dramatically down on a couple of years ago, and news about the issue well off the agenda, people have one fewer reason to be annoyed at the EU.

How can you square this with Eurosceptic parties doing well?

It’s true that Eurosceptic and populist parties are probably going to do well in the coming European parliament elections, and have made gains in national parliaments over the last decade.

But if you delve down into the individual cases, these parties’ success is generally despite their Euroscepticism, not because of it.

Most of the populist parties are anti-immigration and anti-austerity – generally popular stances. But in almost every case they have had to moderate their anti-EU message to win support, and do not actually openly advocate leaving the bloc.

These figures underscore why that is: EU membership is actually very popular, even if people have criticisms of it.

Most populist and nationalist parties are thus happy to pick fights with Brussels for domestic political advantage rather than talk about an in-out referendum.