Majority in EU's big five feel bloc 'sold them out' to US: Poll
3 Min Read
A new poll shows most Europeans believe the 2025 EU-US trade deal favors the US, with growing calls for Ursula von der Leyen’s resignation.
-
US President Donald Trump reads from a paper and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listens after reaching a trade deal between the US and the EU, July 27, 2025. (AP)
Across the EU's five largest member states, a majority of citizens believe that during its negotiations with Donald Trump, the European Commission sold them out by agreeing to a deal that is seen as humiliating, one which they feel benefits the United States far more than Europe.
According to a poll conducted by Cluster17 for the European affairs debate platform Le Grand Continent, 77% of respondents, a figure ranging from 89% in France to 50% in Poland, thought the deal would benefit the US economy, while only 2% believed it would benefit Europe’s.
Across the five countries, which together account for approximately 60% of the bloc's population, an average of 52% of respondents described the deal, which was agreed in July by Donald Trump and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, as a "humiliation".
Based on the poll published on Tuesday, an average of 75% of respondents said von der Leyen had defended European interests “very” or “fairly” badly, a view echoed by commentators who said that the EU gave up far more than the US and was subservient to Washington.
Reactions to Trump
According to the poll, almost 70% of respondents said they would be willing to boycott US goods over the terms of the deal, 44% considered Trump “an enemy of Europe,” 47% felt he had “autocratic tendencies", and 36% said he “behaves like a dictator.”
According to the survey, more than three-quarters of respondents stated they were very or fairly dissatisfied with the EU’s approach to the Trump administration, while almost 40% expressed that they felt the bloc should stand up and oppose the whims of the US president.
Days before Von der Leyen is scheduled to deliver her 2025 “state of the union” address, a clear majority of respondents, amounting to 60% across the five countries, stated that they would view the commission chief’s resignation “very” or “fairly” favourably.
In a clear message to Brussels, while majorities ranging from 85% in Spain to 61% in France felt their country should remain an EU member, 37% of respondents stated that if the bloc failed to protect its citizens from geopolitical risks, quitting the union “should be envisaged.”
In addition to the stipulation that EU firms are to invest an extra $600bn (£443m) in the US and that the bloc must buy $750 billion of US energy while dramatically increasing spending on US defense exports, these requirements were viewed negatively by more than two-thirds of poll respondents.
