Support in Finland for the European Union has fallen, with negative attitudes towards the union on the increase, according to a survey of values and attitudes published by the business think tank Eva.
The survey results suggest that 53 percent of Finns have a positive attitude towards EU membership, down from 56 percent last year. Meanwhile about 20 percent of those surveyed said they now had a negative opinion of the Union, a seven percentage point rise from 2019.
Eva has gauged Finnish people's attitudes towards the EU since 1988 – seven years before the country joined the Union in 1995 – and reported last year that support for the EU in Finland had hit a record high.
Eva's Research Manager Ilkka Haavisto told Yle that the most obvious explanation for the drop in support is the impact of the coronavirus crisis. Since the pandemic broke, cooperation between EU countries has stalled over such issues as the closing of borders and the obtaining of protective equipment.
Haavisto also pointed to the economic crisis in the EU caused by the pandemic as a further explanatory factor.
"The slowdown in economic growth and the end of Finland's EU presidency may also be reflected in attitudes," Haavisto added. The survey was carried out during the early stages of the epidemic in Finland.
EU must learn from coronavirus crisis
European Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen, speaking to the Yle TV1 current affairs programme Ykkösaamu on Saturday morning, said the Union was caught unawares by the speed and extent to which the novel coronavirus moved across the continent, and that lessons must be learned for how to deal with future crises.
Urpilainen was previously Finland's finance minister and now oversees the EU’s international partnerships.
The survey’s findings buck the recent trend in which the popularity of the EU in Finland has grown year after year.
However, attitudes towards EU membership have been more positive for most of the 2010s than on average over the 25 years of membership. In both 2000 and 2007, anti-EU feelings were found to be as high as 35 percent.
The survey results are based on replies from 2,060 people between March 26 to April 3, 2020.