In this July 19, 2020  photo, people cross the street in Huntington Beach, California, United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. (APU GOMES / AFP)

Around a third of Europeans feel the United States can't be trusted after the strains to trans-Atlantic ties over the past four years, even though most of them welcome the presidency of Joe Biden, a survey by a European think tank finds.

On the trust factor, nearly 32% of respondents agreed that, after Trump's election win in 2016, a cloud hangs over the choices of voters in the US

Many do not trust US voters not to vote for another candidate similar to Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, in four years, according to the study by the European Council on Foreign Relations, or ECFR.

Alongside the mistrust of the US felt by many in Europe, more than half of those polled believe that Biden's victory in November's presidential election will benefit their countries and the European Union.

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On the trust factor, nearly 32 percent of respondents agreed that, after Trump's election win in 2016, a cloud hangs over the choices of voters in the US. That was despite nearly 57 percent of those surveyed saying Biden's win will be beneficial for the European Union.

The Pan-European survey questioned more than 15,000 people in 11 countries in November and December, with six in 10 Europeans believing that the US political system is broken and that China will become a stronger power than the US in the next decade. The poll was conducted by Datapraxis and YouGov.

Gayle Allard, a professor of economic environment and country analysis at IE Business School in Madrid, said that, over time, there has been a steady decline in European confidence in the US.

"This is pretty natural: Europeans were utterly dependent on the US after World War II, but as time has gone on and European integration has progressed, naturally they have begun to stand on their own two feet and have developed their own, united identity as Europeans, which is a very positive development," Allard said.

Own defense capabilities

"There has also been a fairly steady divergence between the US and Europe since the (former US president Ronald) Reagan years (of the 1980s), with the US leaning toward a less regulated, free-market model and Europe tending more toward regulation and heavy government involvement in the economy. They do not see the world in exactly the same way, despite all of the core values that they share and their common heritage," Allard said.

The survey found that two-thirds of Europeans polled said that Europe cannot always rely on the US to defend it, and that it needs to look after its own defense capabilities.

The ECFR said the tumultuous Trump presidency has deeply affected the trans-Atlantic relationship, to the point that there is now deep skepticism within the bloc over whether Biden can stop the decline of the US on the global stage.

Allard said much damage has been done to the US image during the past four years.

"Trump stated publicly that he did not support many of the institutions that we designed together and which united us: the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, NATO," she said.

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"He broke off trade talks with Europe and imposed tariffs. He demanded, rightly, but non-diplomatically, that Europe take more responsibility for its own defense spending. He personally offended many European leaders. Four years is a long time for such poor treatment, and it has done much harm to the US image."

Europeans believe that the isolationism and unpredictability of the Trump administration, coupled with deep internal issues within the US, will impact on Biden and his ability to recast the nation's global image, according to the report.

"I think Europeans will respond once they see the Americans strongly committed once again to the common agreements we had all worked hard on in the past," Allard said.