The survey shows that public support for EU membership was back at a level recorded before the economic crisis in 2007.
EU membership is a good thing in the eyes of 57% of Europeans, up by four percentage points compared to the previous survey of September last year and almost at the same level as in 2007 (58%), before the financial and economic crisis set in.
In Croatia, public support for EU membership is at 36%, 10 percentage points less than in 2016, which puts Croatia in fourth place from the bottom.
The EU received the greatest support in Luxembourg, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands and the least support in the Czech Republic, Greece and Italy.
Fourteen percent of Europeans believe that the EU is a bad project, compared to 15% of Croatians, while 26% of Europeans and 47% of Croatians think that the Union is neither good nor bad.
Reacting to the latest geopolitical events, such as the growing instability in the Arab world, the increasing influence of Russia and China, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, up to 73% of respondents prefer the EU to find a common response over individual national actions.
A strong majority also calls for the EU to do more in addressing current challenges, such as the fight against terrorism (80%) and unemployment (78%), protecting the environment (75%) and tackling tax fraud (74%).
The percentage of Croatian citizens who prefer the EU to find a common response to the current global challenges is similar to the European average.
The survey shows that 25% of Europeans, as against 29% of Croatians, think the EU is going in a good direction. On the other hand, 23% of Croatians believe their country is going in a good direction, which puts Croatia below the average for the EU member states of 31%.
Croatians said they would like to be better informed about topics such as the fight against unemployment (53%), health and social security (38%), economic policy (31%) and agriculture (20%), which is above the EU average.
The survey was conducted in mid-March through face-to-face meetings with 27,901 citizens across the EU, including 1,048 in Croatia.