The poll, commissioned by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a think-tank, queried 15,000 respondents in 12 EU countries, the rp.pl website reported.
The survey was carried out in late January and early February, when Russia had already amassed some 200,000 troops on the Ukraine border, in preparation for the largest military offensive since the Second World War, the website noted.
On average, only 23 percent of respondents said their government would be capable of defending the country’s borders on its own, while 46 percent said EU’s help would be necessary and a further 18 percent thought the wider international community would have to step in, rp.pl wrote.
Poles in particular favour a bigger role for the EU, with 41 percent of those asked looking for the bloc to provide security and just 9 percent rejecting the idea, the website reported.
Only Estonians take an equally positive view of “European sovereignty,” rp.pl wrote.
“It is hard not to link these results to the proximity of the Russian threat,” according to rp.pl.
On February 24, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin launched a military invasion of Ukraine, which has now entered its fourteenth day.
The ECFR survey was carried out between January 21 and February 7 on a sample of 15,000 citizens of EU countries.
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Source: PAP, rp.pl