LONDON (AFP) -- British voters are increasingly opposed to the European Union, a poll for the Economist weekly revealed Thursday, just days before elections for the European Parliament.

The poll commissioned by YouGov shows that over the past 25 years, the proportion of people who think that Britain's membership of the EU is a good thing has fallen from 43 percent to 31 percent.
The share of respondents who think the EU is a “bad thing” has risen from 30 percent to 37 percent.
And while the bloc has expanded eastwards to boost its membership to 27 states, British voters have become more and more reluctant to support greater integration. Just one in five backs the idea now compared to one in three in 1995.
The poll shows 33 percent want a less integrated Europe “with the EU amounting to little more than a free trade area”.
And the number of people who want Britain to pull out of the EU has almost doubled, from 12 percent to 21 percent.
A total of 2,322 adults in Britain were questioned between May 22 and May 26.
Many observers believe Britons will opt for fringe parties in the elections to lodge a protest vote against the main parties, whose lawmakers have been embarrassed by damaging revelations about their expenses.
In the June 4-7 elections, an estimated 375 million voters across the EU will elect 736 deputies for a five-year term at the parliament, which is the only directly-elected EU institution.
The parliament, which has an important role passing pan-European legislation drafted by the EU Commission and passes the commission's annual budget, is expected to remain under center-right control after the elections.