Brussels – Almost one in three Europeans believes that EU countries should seek to resume gas supplies from Russia, but only once the war in Ukraine has ended. Italy, however, has the highest proportion of people who think gas supplies could be resumed even before the conflict ends. This is according to the latest survey by Polling Europe Euroscope, a Brussels-based market research and polling company, the result of a collaboration between SWG and OpinionWay, which Eunews obtained in an exclusive preview. When asked whether European countries should seek to resume gas supplies from Russia, 32 per cent replied ‘Yes, but only after the war in Ukraine has ended’; 30 per cent said ‘Yes, even before the war in Ukraine ends’ and 25 per cent gave a firm ‘No’ (13 per cent, however, said they did not know).
Looking at the breakdown by country, Poland (35 per cent) and France (30 per cent) are the countries where opposition to the reopening of energy corridors is strongest. They are followed by Germany and Spain (in both cases, ‘No’ accounted for 24 per cent of responses) and, lastly, Italy with 19 per cent. Italy, however, has the highest level of support (38 per cent) for the resumption of Russian gas supplies, even before the end of the conflict. It is followed by Germany (33 per cent) and, some way behind, Spain (28 per cent), France (24 per cent) and Poland (20 per cent). The Spanish are the strongest supporters of resuming relations only after the war has ended, at 37 per cent, followed by the Poles (32 per cent), Italians (31 per cent), Germans (30 per cent) and French (24 per cent).
The main supporters of resuming energy supplies only once the war in Ukraine has ended are voters for the liberal Renew Europe group (42 per cent), those for the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), at 37 per cent, and those of the European People’s Party (EPP), at 36 per cent. They are followed by European voters who support the Greens and the ECR’s Conservatives and Reformists (both at 35 per cent), The Left (34 per cent) and Patriots for Europe (PfE – 32 per cent). Voters of the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) come last in the ranking, with 24 per cent.
Conversely, those who support re-establishing relations even before the end of the war are precisely the citizens who vote for ESN, with 60 per cent favouring this option. All the others are around 30 per cent or below: The Left (35 per cent), Patriots (34 per cent), ECR (31 per cent), EPP (25 per cent), Renew (21 per cent), S&D and the Greens (both 20 per cent).
The survey was conducted online using the CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) methodology on a representative sample of the European Union population aged 18 and over. The total sample size comprises 5,067 complete interviews, distributed proportionally across the populations of the 27 EU countries, with a slight adjustment to enable pan-European analysis of the data, including breakdowns for the five most populous countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland) and across three different geographical areas: Central and Eastern Europe, Northern Europe and Southern Europe. For each country, proportional quotas were established by age and gender, based on the most recent Eurostat parameters. The interviews were conducted between 21 and 30 September 2026.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
