Half of EU Citizens Say Bloc Should Act More Independently From US: Poll

MOSCOW, December 19 (Sputnik) — Forty-six percent of European Union citizens argue that the 28-member bloc should act more independently from the United States, while only 28 percent thought that Brussels is independent enough in its actions, a poll conducted by the ICM Research exclusively for Sputnik news agency revealed.

The ICM Research surveyed over 3,000 adults in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

The vast majority, sixty-two percent, of German citizens think that the European Union should become more independent from Washington, while only 15 percent of Germans said that the European Union already acts independently enough from the United States.

Opinions shared on the same topic in France and the United Kingdom were similar, where 38 and 39 percent of respondents respectively thought that the countries should act more independently from the United States. Thirteen percent of residents in both countries said the European Union should act less independently from the United States. Thirty-four percent of French and British respondents argued that the European Union bloc is already independent enough.

The European Union coordinates most of its foreign activities with the United States, including the recently imposed sanctions against Russia over Moscow’s alleged interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs – a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

A lot of EU citizens, particularly Germans, whose businesses and work depend on cooperation with Russia, expressed their dissatisfaction over their governments’ actions, saying that they blindly follow the United States’ policies.

According to the German-Russian Foreign Trade Office and the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations in Germany, there were 6,000 German companies with a business presence in Russia in 2013. It is estimated that EU sanctions could put up to 300,000 people out of work in Germany by the end of 2014.