The Informat.ro Barometer - INSCOP Research, the seventh edition, shows that almost 39% of Romanians believe that EU membership limits national sovereignty, and almost 38% of them believe that limiting national sovereignty due to European Union membership helps improve living standards.
About 22% of Romanians consider that the limitation of sovereignty as a result of belonging to the European Union affects improvements in living standards while about 15% are of the opinion that this limitation contributes to improved living standards.
According to data collected between January 13-15, 38.9% of respondents are of the opinion that Romania's membership of the European Union limits national sovereignty (as against 38.1% in September 2025). At the same time, 45.9% do not believe that it limits national sovereignty too much (down from 52.4% in September 2025), and 15.3% do not know or do not respond (up from 9.5% in September 2025).
The perception that EU membership limits national sovereignty is more pronounced than the average among Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) voters, men, people over 60 years old, those with an average education backgrounds and inhabitants of small urban areas.
In higher proportions than the average, National Liberal Party (PNL) and Save Romania Union (USR) voters, young people under 30 and people aged between 45 and 59, people with a higher education, residents of Bucharest and major cities, as well as public employees do not see membership of the European Union as limiting national sovereignty.
As far as the living standards are concerned, 37.7% of those who consider that Romania's membership of the European Union limits national sovereignty are of the opinion that membership contributes to improved living standards for Romanians. They make up about 15% of Romania's total population. On the other hand, 57% of respondents on this segment do not believe that limiting sovereignty helps increase the living standards. They make up about 22% of the total population. The share of non-answers is 5.3%.
Regarding the protection of economic interests within the European Union, 69.1% of those surveyed believe that Romania should negotiate more favourable conditions within the EU to protect its economic interests (down from 80.7% in April 2025). At the same time, 11.2% are of the opinion that Romania should exit the European Union (as against 4.8% in April 2025), and 11.8% believe that the country should not do anything, because economic and national interests are already protected (as against 10% in April 2025). As many as 7.9% do not know or do not answer (up from4.5% in April 2025).
The opinion that Romania should negotiate more favourable terms within the European Union is shared above the average by PNL and USR voters, women, people with a higher education, residents of large cities and public employees. They support Romania's exit from the European Union in higher-than-average proportions, especially men and people with a primary education.
PNL and USR voters, people aged between 30 and 44 and residents of small urban areas consider, to a greater extent than the rest of the population, that Romania should not do anything, as economic and national interests are already protected.
As far as quality of life is concerned, 22.4% of Romanians believe that their life would be better if the European Union were abolished, while 54.9% believe that life would be more difficult for them. Also, 2.3% believe that life would be just as good, and 2% that it would be just as hard. The share of non-answers is 18.4%.
According to the poll, the voters of any relevant party in Romania do not believe, in the majority, that life would be better if the European Union were abolished.
INSCOP Research Director Remus Stefureac believes that the data on the relationship between membership in the European Union and the theme of national sovereignty reflect a structural paradox: a significant part of the population accepts the idea of loss of sovereignty, but support for European membership is rather instrumental and conditional, not deeply internalised as an identity project.
"People remain attached to the EU because the alternative is perceived as worse. This type of pro-Europeanism is defensive and pragmatic, based on fear of loss (security, stability, access), not on aspiration or deep symbolic loyalty. The consequence is a structural vulnerability: in the absence of clearly felt benefits in everyday life, this support can be quickly eroded by an aggressive populist discourse, doubled by mimicry from the parties along this demagogic line. At the same time, a massive preference for renegotiation within the EU, and not for exit, shows the existence of a nationalism of negotiation, not one of rupture: citizens want more control, but without the systemic costs of isolation. This attitude indicates a pragmatic maturation of Euroscepticism, which expresses itself as internal political pressure to recalibrate the country's posture, not as a radical Ro-exit option. Also, the perception that the dissolution of the EU would worsen personal life for the majority of the population reveals that the EU is associated with security and predictability," said Stefureac.
Overall, he also shows that data indicate the existence of a latent tension between symbolic sovereignty and functional dependence, which can be exploited politically, with the actors capable of combining a discourse of national firmness with the maintenance of the European anchorage having a potential strategic advantage in the electoral competition.
"We have a pro-European population motivated by calculation not by persuasion, which profoundly changes the way in which the pro-EU political discourse should be constructed in the next decade. This is essential to avoid contaminating the population with radical approaches, given that already one in five Romanians is Eurosceptic and convinced that their life would be better outside the EU. On the other hand, it is significant that, for the time being, there is no majority in any electoral pool of the four major parties that would consider that life would be better if the European Union were to dissolve. Even in the case of AUR voters, the share of those who believe that life would be harder if the EU were to dissolve is slightly higher than that of those who believe the opposite, even if the differences are more balanced compared to the voters of the other parties, more attached to the advantages of the European Union membership."
The data were collected between January 12-15, 2026, the research method being interview through the questionnaire. The data were collected using the CATI method (telephone interviews), with the volume of the simple, stratified sample being 1,100 people, representative by significant socio-demographic categories (sex, age, occupation) for the non-institutionalised population of Romania, aged 18 and over. The maximum allowed error of the data is ą 3%, at a confidence level of 95%.
Comentează