Just 36 per cent of Italians, a little over a third, believe being part of the EU is a good thing, compared with the European average of 57 per cent.
Asked if the country had benefited from EU membership, only 39 per cent of Italians surveyed agreed that it had. Across the rest of Europe, the average was 64 per cent.
The result places the country at the very bottom of the 28 current EU members – including the UK.
Despite voting to leave the bloc last year, the majority of Britons, 55 per cent, believed they had benefited from EU membership.
The European Parliament’s annual “Parlemeter” saw 27,881 EU citizens from all 28 member states take part in face-to-face interviews between September 23 to October 2.
The biggest issue that concerned Europeans was terrorism, with 58 per cent of respondents saying they expected protection from the EU.
The second biggest concern was the economy, on 43 per cent, followed by poverty and exclusion, with 42 per cent.
Uncontrolled migration was the biggest concern for 35 per cent of those polled.
Overall, perception of the European Parliament was up, to 33 per cent across the continent from 21 per cent last year – a year when populism threatened to topple the Brussels establishment.
Despite his home nation’s misgivings about his institution, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said he expected “confidence in the EU Parliament and in our work continues to grow, with the best results recorded since the pre-crisis period”.