Seventy percent of European MPs across four “survey waves” perceived their country’s relations with Israel as very good or rather good
A survey of European lawmakers published on Jan. 19 by the European Leadership Network (ELNET) shows a large majority of European parliament members view their countries’ relations with Israel as good and favor greater cooperation.
The survey of 1,061 MPs from 35 countries combines the results of “four waves” of surveys between 2022 and 2025.
Seventy percent of European MPs across all survey waves perceive their
countries’ relations with Israel as very good or rather good, reported ELNET, an NGO dedicated to strengthening Europe-Israel relations.
In 2025, a 68% majority called for closer cooperation with Israel, in line with previous surveys. Only about 6% favored reducing or ending cooperation with Israel.
“MPs from Romania (96%), Italy (87%), and Germany (83%) report particularly favorable views of their countries’ relations with Israel,” according to the survey. “In contrast, markedly smaller shares of MPs from Ireland (9%), Spain (20%), Turkey (18%), and Belgium (43%) describe relations as positive.”
Support remains strong across the political spectrum, with 85% of Liberal MPs, 78% of both Conservative and Green MPs and 72% of Social Democratic MPs giving a positive assessment of relations.
Among right-wing parties, around 53% view relations favorably.
Security and strategic interests score highest among conservative (48%), liberal (46%–50%), and right-wing MPs (56%). Security factors also feature strongly in certain countries, such as Greece (75%), the Czech Republic (68%) and France (63%).
Security interests are significantly lower among left-wing MPs (22%), Ireland (10%), Romania (10%) and Turkey (9%).
Support for defense collaboration with Israel rose sharply across the survey waves, reaching 66% last year.
Science and education cooperation forms “the most stable cross-party consensus,” according to the poll, whereas economic and cultural cooperation show “significant regional and ideological variation,” with support higher in several Nordic and Eastern European countries vs. Germany or France.
The seriousness with which European lawmakers view Israel-related antisemitism has risen sharply, with 75% considering it serious, up from 57% in 2024. More than 80% across all survey waves call for stronger government action to combat antisemitism.