MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2020) Citizens of the European Union member states are predominantly reluctant to see their tax money spent on assistance to the United Kingdom in the hypothetical case of a major crisis, reflecting the growing alienation post-Brexit, a fresh survey found on Monday.
The finding came as part of a larger survey conducted by the YouGov pollster among more than 21,000 people across 14 European countries, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
"These results ... demonstrate quite how far the UK has alienated its European neighbours. Of the 35 countries we asked people whether they'd be willing to assist, the UK comes joint 33rd - tied with Tunisia and above only Colombia," the pollster said in a press release.
Of all surveyed countries, only in Greece, Denmark, Poland and Romania more people than not said they would be willing to financially assist the UK in the event of a major crisis.
According to YouGov, "this is not simply the case that the UK is a rich country and so people won't donate on the basis that the UK can afford to look after itself: people are far more willing to provide financial assistance to the other top wealthy European countries Germany and France."
With regard to helping other EU-member states, respondents from all 13 participating nations displayed willingness to help when it comes to crises associated with natural disaster,� public health or military attack. Additionally, all but Finland said they would also help in case of a climate change-related issue.
Crises associated with refugees or technological backwardness are likely to attract less support, while crises linked to debts or unemployment will be rejected support by the majority of countries.
Additionally, it was established that Europeans were willing to assist some EU countries more than the others. For example, Italy, Spain and Portugal are the three countries most likely to be given support, while Hungary, Luxembourg and Romania are the three least likely ones.
The majority of respondents said they would prefer assistance to third states to be coordinated via a permanently-functioning mechanism at the EU level, rather than at the country level on a case-by-case basis.
At the same time, there are countries that believe such EU-wide funds would bring them more spending than benefit. This includes Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and France.� For example, 51 percent of respondents in Finland believe their country will spend more toward such initiatives than gain from them, while only 15 percent believe the opposite.
Greece, on the other hand, is expected to benefit more than spend with such a fund by 66 percent of respondents as opposed to 18 percent of those who believe the opposite. The outcomes are similar for Spain, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Italy and Lithuania.
