Young People And Europe: Quantitatively Researching Euroscepticism In Europe’s Youth.

Transcript

The next round of European elections are due to take place in May 2014, against the backdrop of support for the European Union (EU) at its lowest ever point according to Eurobarometer data. Eurosceptic discourse is dominant in much of the media across Europe, and prominent Eurosceptics claim that Euroscepticism is now the prevailing attitude towards Europe among the populations of EU member states. This study focuses on Euroscepticism and young people in Europe. Using quantitative methods, this paper finds that Euroscepticism is not at all prominent in young people, and also that young people are the least Eurosceptic of all age groups, consistently disagreeing with key Eurosceptic positions and attitudes. Despite the sustained Eurosceptic discourse and rhetoric which dominates much political discussion in Europe, Euroscepticism is not a popular belief held by, or representative of the views and attitudes, of Europe’s young.