Young Brits Are Pro-EU, But Will They Vote?

By Bruce Stokes, Director of Global Economic Attitudes, Pew Research Center

Special to EU Observer

British parliamentary elections are set for 7 May. Britons will go to the polls amid rising public support for the anti-European Union UK Independence Party and calls for the Conservative government of David Cameron to bring forward to 2016 a promised referendum on the country’s continued EU membership.

Four decades after the 1975 referendum in which the British electorate voted by a two-to-one majority to join the EU’s predecessor, the European Economic Community, Britain’s relationship with the Continent remains a divisive issue in UK politics.

The generation that voted to join the EEC has now turned against the EU. And Britain’s future relationship with Europe may well depend on the views of its Millennials – Britons born after 1980. But this younger, generally pro-EU generation, has a history of not voting.

Read more at EU Observer