On June 23, 2016 vot­ers in the Unit­ed King­dom decide whether they want Britain to remain in the Euro­pean Union (EU) or want it to leave. While vot­ers in oth­er mem­ber states have no say in this ref­er­en­dum on the UK’s future in the EU, their opin­ions nev­er­the­less are like­ly to have an impact. Con­sid­er­ing pub­lic opin­ion in their own coun­tries, gov­ern­ments of EU mem­ber states have been under pres­sure to respond to the UK’s pro­posed pol­i­cy changes and have to react to the con­se­quences of the UK’s referendum.

In order to shed light on pub­lic opin­ion in oth­er EU mem­ber states on the UK’s ref­er­en­dum and its poten­tial con­se­quences for the EU at large, we sur­veyed a rep­re­sen­ta­tive sam­ple of vot­ers in Ger­many, France, Poland, Spain, Ire­land, and Swe­den in late Jan­u­ary and ear­ly Feb­ru­ary 2016. A total of 8,002 respon­dents across the six coun­tries answered ques­tions on their views on the UK’s posi­tion in, and mem­ber­ship of, the EU, the nego­ti­a­tions pre­ced­ing the UK’s EU ref­er­en­dum, and the desir­abil­i­ty of hav­ing sim­i­lar process­es of pub­lic deci­sion-mak­ing in their own country.

In this report we present key find­ings on views from the con­ti­nent on: the UK’s posi­tion in, and mem­ber­ship of, the EU; opin­ions on rene­go­ti­a­tions and pol­i­cy options for Britain; atti­tudes about some pro­posed EU-lev­el pol­i­cy changes that might occur as a result of the UK’s nego­ti­a­tion; and views on whether a sim­i­lar process to that being pur­sued by the UK is desir­able in oth­er EU mem­ber states. The find­ings are par­tic­u­lar­ly insight­ful for pol­i­cy mak­ers in the six coun­tries sur­veyed, inform­ing them about the atti­tudes of their publics, but the results will also have great rel­e­vance for those involved in cam­paigns for and against the UK’s mem­ber­ship in the EU.

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