The Impact of EU Policy Responses to the 2022–2023 Energy Crisis on Trust in EU Governing Institutions

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 generated profound economic disruptions across the European Union (EU), exposing the Union’s dependence on Russian energy imports and triggering severe volatility in energy markets. The subsequent surge in energy prices produced wide-ranging spillover effects, notably escalating inflation and exacerbating socio-economic pressures on households and firms. In response, the EU adopted a series of regulatory and fiscal interventions aimed at mitigating the crisis and stabilizing market conditions. This paper examines how these policy responses, alongside key macroeconomic indicators such as inflation and unemployment, relate to public trust in EU governing institutions. Employing a fixed-effects panel analysis across EU member states for the 2022–2023 period, the study assesses the extent to which variation in economic performance and regulatory measures influences levels of institutional trust. We hypothesize that deteriorating socio-economic conditions negatively affect trust, whereas effective EU interventions may offset these effects by reinforcing perceptions of institutional responsiveness and capacity. The findings contribute to broader debates on crisis governance, political trust, and the resilience of supranational institutions under economic stress.