European Unity on the Rocks | Pew Global Attitudes Project

The north-south divide in Europe, a topic of great concern in policy circles in Brussels, is by no means uniform. No country in northern Europe has a positive view of Greece. But Britain, France and Germany still hold positive views of Italy and Spain.

Southern Europeans are more dissatisfied than northerners with the direction of their countries, more worried about the state of their economy and the most worried about economic mobility. But southerners share with northerners their disenchantment with the results of European integration.

There is no north-south divide on coping with the crisis. As might be expected, wealthy northern countries are less supportive of financial bailouts than poorer southern nations. But there is no clear-cut division of opinion on austerity or EU oversight of national budgets. Finally, with regard to the perception of the national character of the residents of southern European countries, the British, French and Germans judge the Greeks, Italians and Spanish to be the laziest people in Europe and among the most corrupt. However, Italians and Spaniards largely share this negative image of themselves and their southern counterparts.

Not way out of line with what I would've expected.  

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

the economically weaker countries favour the euro because it got them lower borrowing rates, germany favours it because it gave them a discounted market right next door.

the southern countries know they are more corrupt, (duh) and that's why they liked being in the eurozone, believing their governance would be improved by brussels' oversight.

what happened was the financial bankers elite sided with the forces in those countries who were corrupt, (mob money is keeping italian banks solvent), and brussels did painfully little to help the PIIG countries govern themselves better.

the EU knew its grants were being swindled and channeled to syndicates, but it just kept on keeping on.

having said all that, these kind of surveys do as much to accentuate and perpetuate the (stereotypical) differences as they do to help harmonise.

oh well...

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

what the results would look like if you asked US citizens the same questions regarding the states? Put in questions like, "Which state is the most retarded?".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wp4O7v5320

The ambivalence towards the euro within the Eurozone is interesting. I wonder what responses to Q67 would be seen if a smaller "core" euro had been given as an option. The disparity points to an appetite for reform, unfortunately I suspect the preference would be to leave behind the lazy Greeks/Italians/Whoever.

The problems of stereotyping is not that it exists: it is that it might be wrong.

Take for instance number of hours worked: Southerners work more than Northerners (having worked in several countries and with many cultures, my view is that the number of hours worked reflects well the amount of work done). But the stereotype is the other way around.

The religious/Christian view of work is depressing: people immediately imply that richer->hard worker. Indeed nation success probably involves more of honesty, respect, organization, fairness, creativity, trust, lawfulness, ... . Hard-work is a poor substitute (indeed it is no substitute at all)