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On the European level, people aged 18-29 show more confidence in the European Union and less fear of the effects of immigration than their elders. Is this a question of age or is age a mediator of other effects? To answer this question, the article is based on linear regressions that offer the possibility of testing different hypotheses –identity, cognitive mobilisation and cultural liberalism hypotheses– which explain the more favourable attitudes of the young towards the EU and single out four explanatory profiles of young people’s positioning with regard to Europe that denote strongly marked national variations. The article thus reveals that in certain countries, notably France, today the most highly qualified young people are those who show the greatest fear of the EU.