71% of Europeans Back an EU Army, Poll Finds, as Fears Over U.S. Commitment Grow

Nearly three in four Europeans support the creation of an EU army, according to new polling, as the United States considers a significant withdrawal of its forces from Europe and European governments debate how to strengthen their military capabilities.

The 2026 GLOBSEC Trends report, surveying 14 countries across the transatlantic space, including 11 EU member states, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States, found that 71 percent of Europeans want the European Union to have its own army. Support was strongest along the eastern flank and in France: 82 percent in Romania, 78 percent in Lithuania, 75 percent in France, 73 percent in Latvia, 71 percent in Estonia, and 70 percent each in Bulgaria and Poland. In Germany, historically more wary of deeply integrated defense, around 69 percent supported a European army.

The enthusiasm for European military capabilities did not appear to be a rebuke of NATO. Some 77 percent of respondents in the NATO countries surveyed said they would vote to remain members of the alliance, while 78 percent of respondents in the EU countries surveyed supported developing the bloc's own defense capabilities alongside NATO.

There was also strong support for the most direct form of contribution to national defense: a draft. Among respondents in countries without compulsory military service, 64 percent favored its reintroduction, according to the report, with the highest numbers found in Czechia, France, Germany and Slovakia.

Attitudes toward Washington revealed a growing transatlantic divide. More than one-third of respondents across the European countries surveyed now consider the United States a security threat. Around half of respondents in Germany, France and Britain held that view, compared with roughly one-third in Central and Eastern Europe. Germany was the only country surveyed where a majority regarded Washington as a security threat.

A significant proportion of respondents also believe that more EU countries should develop nuclear weapons to strengthen Europe's security, with majorities in Poland at 61 percent, Ukraine at 57 percent, France at 53 percent and the United Kingdom at 51 percent. And 56 percent of Europeans consider the continent's future to be "under threat," pointing to growing concern about the reliability of the United States and deep divisions over Russia's war in Ukraine.

The findings come as European leaders debate defense integration, with EU leaders set to discuss the issue at the December European Council, and as the war in Ukraine and uncertainty over America's commitment to European security push the question of a European army back to the center of the continent's politics.