Nur jeder zehnte Europäer sieht die USA derzeit als Verbündeten, wie eine Umfrage zeigt | Nato

poll across 15 countries finds ‘deep mistrust’, with majority doubting US would come to their aid in an attack

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European confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked.

The survey, published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank before critical G7 and Nato summits in France and Turkey over the coming weeks, revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said.

It also showed that, while many Europeans felt relations with Washington would improve once Donald Trump leaves office, they were increasingly ready in the meantime to protect themselves against US unreliability by bolstering Europe’s defence.

The US president’s Middle East aggression, threats against Greenland, vows to withdraw troops from European bases and scepticism on the future of Nato had also prompted a growing European pragmatism, the report said.

Across the continent, there’s clear support for reducing dependence on Washington,” said Jana Kobzová, a co-author and ECFR senior policy fellow. “Europeans are increasingly open to higher defence spending and, crucially, show a striking degree of confidence that neighbouring countries would come to their aid in a crisis.”

Paweł Zerka, Kobzová’s co-author and also an ECFR senior policy fellow, said clear public demand for greater self-reliance and the need to hedge against US defence guarantees had “created a window for Europe’s leaders to go further and faster” on security.

The survey, based on polling carried out in May in Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, showed an average of just 11% of respondents across all countries now viewed the US as an ally.

That compared with 16% six months ago, and 22% in November 2024. The prevailing view was that the US was now a “necessary partner”, although 13% of the European public said they considered the US a rival and 12% a direct adversary.

Majorities in every country were no longer confident the US would come to their aid in an attack. Except in Bulgaria, most people – including in countries with large far-right parties such as France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden – believed “at least some European countries” would help them in a similar scenario.

Europeans were now on average 4% more likely to support higher national defence spending than last year, the survey found, with Italy the only country where a clear majority remained opposed.

On average, 47% of respondents backed the ideal of collective EU borrowing for finance greater defence spending, with 35% opposed to it. Support was strongest in Portugal (59%), Denmark (56%), the Netherlands (55%) and Spain.

In almost every country polled, most respondents said their country should reduce its strategic dependence on US military hardware, with “buy European” backers most numerous in Denmark (75%), the Netherlands (72%), Sweden (70%), Portugal (69%), France (66%), Switzerland (64%), the UK and Spain (both 62%).

There was, however, markedly less support for the idea of cutting domestic public spending to pay for higher national defence budgets, with opposition strongest in Italy (63%), Austria (59%), Germany (56%), Spain (54%) and Denmark (52%).

There was also little backing (29%) for replacing Nato with a new EU-only defence body, with the dominant view in almost every country except Bulgaria that US-European relations would “probably get better” once Trump leaves – a view held by 60% or more in France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Despite rising energy costs, 44% of Europeans said it would be a “rather bad” or “very bad” idea to resume importing oil and gas from Russia.

Ukraine’s ambition to join the EU, however, continues to divide European opinion, with respondents in countries including Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany and even Estonia, one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters, more likely to oppose admitting Ukraine “in the current context” than favour it.

You really can’t rely on them anymore. Seeing that almost none of the republican politicians have a spine to do what is right. Most of them are enabling Trump and his MAGA crowd to do whatever they want. The cracks in the US political system are really bad.

Also, seeing how Trump tried to push a bad deal for Ukraine in the negotiations between the US and russia, whilst ignoring Ukraine and Europe in their two-way negotiations. The proposals were laughable and naive, always siding with the russians.

And then we have the Big Tech -companies and their billionaire egoists showing their true face – greedy, selfish and hoping to be monopolies. They are everything that is wrong with the world these days. Luckily it isn’t the first time that giants crash in the history of mankind. I hope they lose a lot because of their actions.

And yet they gleefully choose the Windows operating system. Would they choose it if it was a Russian product?

I am surprised that there is still one of ten..

Who are the 10%? Are they insane?

And the 10th European is either naive or an anti-european themself…

The US now has become a de facto Enemy and Security Risk for Europe. Anyone clings to false Hope still is delusional

The US stopped being a reliable ally by choice. The only interest they have in Europe is in funding right wing politics and stirring the shit in an attempt to weaken us and make us easier to dominate. Just like Russia. Agent Krasnov is no better than Putin and he spends half his time pushing the Russian agenda and talking points. The one in 10 who still see the US as a reliable ally are either incredibly dumb, uninformed or are also Russian shills.

Usa. Literally. Threatened. Invasion.
Of an European country.

What fucking ally does that?

Yeah, Russia.

The US national security strategy aims at destroying EU and weaken Europe. USA aligns more with Russia than EU on Ukraine. The 1 out of 10 must be the ultra right self-flagellating pro-Putin/MAGA people who wants to see their own countries die.

And yet that doesn’t get reflected in EU foreign policy. Goes to show what a scam liberal democracy is, as the ones in power do whatever capital wants.

Only one in 10 articles now say something that we don’t know

*surprised Pikachu face*

why do you guys do this so often? Every single week, there’s just polls after polls asking your own people their opinion on the US. Then you guys post the results on reddit and just have a shit talking meeting on the US.

In a way I understand why but at the same time the activity itself is kinda hilarious.

If this is true then other NATO members should expel the United States from the organization

You can pretend all you want but US is an ally of EU and vice versa, if we weren’t then we would be openly trading with Russia like China. Even when Us drops some sanctions its nothing but a drop in the bucket compared to a nation keeping the entire economy of Russia from imploding.

We all know that the 1 of 10 is a russian nationalist or far right Musk tech-bro

That’s too many.