I'm not sure where you got the impression that the EU is less popular in the east; according to these [1] surveys, Poland is the only large EU country where EU

I'm not sure where you got the impression that the EU is less popular in the east; according to these [1] surveys, Poland is the only large EU country where EU approval ratings have held up lately, while Hungarians also have quite good feelings on the subject - despite their governments' very public disputes with the EU on the erosion of democracy in those countries. The correlation is weak, but they're also less into decentralisation than others. And Spain and Italy are also relatively pro-Eu; their populist movements have been left-wing and pro-EU. It's rich Northwestern states (and, understandably, Greece) that have big problems on the popular level with the EU. [1] http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/06/07/euroskepticism-beyond-brexit/ http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/06/07/euroskepticism-beyond-br...