One in three Europeans points to nuclear power as a response to the energy transition. That is the headline finding of the Flash Eurobarometer 584, published in June 2026 by the European Commission: 32% of EU citizens regard nuclear energy as a viable solution for moving away from fossil fuels. Taken in isolation, the figure might seem modest. In the context of Europe’s energy debate over recent years, however, it is a signal that is hard to dismiss.
The survey captures a Europe seeking answers on multiple fronts — online child safety, defence, democratic resilience — but it is on energy that some of the most telling findings emerge. 56% of respondents believe expanding renewables is the primary path out of fossil fuels, and two in five point to energy efficiency. Nuclear comes third, but with 32% explicitly including it among valid options. That is not a minority position. It is a share that is growing, and one that varies considerably by country: in Estonia, the figure rises to 43% — nearly half of all respondents.
Why Estonia? The Baltic state is actively building its nuclear future. Fermi Energia, the company leading the project, has signed agreements with Samsung C&T for the development of two small-scale BWRX-300 reactors, and national polling showed public support hovering around 69% in 2025. That context explains why Estonians consistently respond to European surveys with figures well above the average. The challenge of breaking dependence on oil shale — which still accounts for nearly half of the country’s electricity generation — makes the issue concrete rather than abstract.
The Flash Eurobarometer 584 data should be read alongside findings from other surveys. The Special Eurobarometer 557, published in February 2025, showed that 56% of EU-27 citizens believed nuclear would have a positive effect on their lives over the next twenty years. A study published on ScienceDirect in 2025, based on representative samples from six European countries including France, Germany and Italy, recorded an increase in nuclear support of between 14 and 27 percentage points compared with 2009. The trend is clear, even if the pace varies. In 2025, according to World Nuclear Association data, nuclear already accounted for 23% of EU electricity generation, with France and other countries maintaining significant active reactor fleets.
On the behavioural side, Eurobarometer 584 also captures how European citizens are responding to rising energy prices: 31% have cut their overall electricity consumption, 27% have started monitoring their usage more closely, and 26% have reduced heating or cooling. These are immediate adaptation measures. The question of which energy sources should secure supply over the long term is a different matter — and on that front, nuclear registers percentages that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
The European 32% — and Estonia’s 43% — do not yet represent a majority. But the shift in public opinion is becoming a factor that policymakers can no longer afford to overlook. With 23 European countries investing in civil nuclear in 2025, and the Commission having published in June 2025 an indicative programme projecting 109 GWe of installed capacity by 2050, the picture is growing increasingly coherent. Public opinion is moving in the same direction as industrial strategy. The question now is whether European energy policy can translate this rising consensus into structural decisions before the window of opportunity narrows.
