EU: Support for membership of the EU has dropped below 50 per cent across the Union for the first time. This was the finding of a poll published on the eve of this weekend's summit in Brussels, where the new EU constitution is supposed to be agreed.
However, support for membership remains high in Ireland at 73 per cent.
Mr Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, blamed the sharp decline in support for membership on squabbling between European governments and EU institutions.
Findings by Eurobarometer show that just 48 per cent of people think EU membership is "a good thing", a six-point decline since the last poll in the spring. Britain managed 28 per cent.
Figures for Germany, the euro zone's largest economy, showed mounting pessimism about prospects for 2004: 62 per cent of Germans (70 per cent in the former East Germany) expect the employment situation to worsen next year.
In France, opposition to enlargement - taking in 10 new mostly eastern European members next May - rose to a record 55 per cent, the highest figure among the current 15 members.
Mr Prodi blamed declining support on rows such as the recent argument over the way France and Germany were allowed to flout the rules of the stability and growth pact, which governs budget deficits.
"These results highlight the growing sense of pessimism felt by people right across the EU," he said. "Bitter disputes like that over the stability and growth pact and unseemly horse trading between national governments detract from the good work which is going on in the EU to build a better society for everyone.
"I hope EU leaders will take due note of the results when they sit down to conclude negotiations on the constitutional treaty. We should aim for an agreement which can meet the very real concerns of ordinary people." The survey, which questioned more than 16,000 Europeans last month and in October, found low levels of trust in political parties, national governments and parliaments. However, the European Parliament was the most trusted of EU institutions.
Commission officials were quick to point out that the respondents who claimed membership was a "bad thing" numbered only 15 per cent on average, although it was a record 29 per cent in Britain.
Results varied wildly from country to country. Support for membership was 77 per cent in Luxembourg and 73 per cent in Ireland. In Sweden, where voters rejected euro membership three months ago, 50 per cent found no benefit in EU membership, worse even than the UK figure of 45 per cent. Support in the UK for joining the euro was just 23 per cent, with 65 per cent against.