Eurobarometer 72.4 (Oct-Nov 2009)

Attitudes towards the European Union. Globalisation. Assessment of the economic and financial crisis, and the EU policy.

Topics:
1. Standard trends and attitudes towards the EU: general life satisfaction; assessment of the national and the European economic situation; assessment of the world economic situation; assessment of the personal job situation and the financial situation of the own household; assessment of the situation on the labour market in the own country and the situation in the environment in the own country; assessment of the national situation compared to the average of the European Union countries regarding the economic situation, the situation on the labour market, cost of living, energy prices, quality of life, and the situation of the environment; future expectations in the above fields; most important problems of the country; EU membership of the own country is a good thing; benefits from the own country’s membership in the EU; development of the own country, the EU, and the USA in the right direction; trust in institutions (media, internet, army, national legal system, political parties, national government, national parliament, European Union, United Nations, regional or local authorities, and NATO); positive or negative image of the EU; EU´s main features; knowledge test on the EU institutions: European Parliament, European Commission, Council of the European Union, European Central Bank; confidence in these institutions; attitude towards a European Monetary Union; attitude towards the enlargement of the EU; assessment of the speed of building Europe; the EU´s most important issues; knowledge test about the EU: number of member states, result of the Irish referendum; membership of Switzerland (Split A) and Iceland (Split B) in the EU; satisfaction with the democracy in the own country and in the EU; understanding of the processes of the EU; assessment regarding the consideration of national interests in the EU; assessment of the EU´s growth speed; citizens of different countries share more common characteristics than differences; lack of ideas for Europe; the EU must meet the global challenges.

2. The EU, the world, and globalisation: most important factors for the global influence of a country or of a group of countries; assignment of these factors to the EU; attitude towards globalisation (scale: opportunity for economic growth, increasing social inequalities, demand for global governance, identical interests of the USA and the EU in dealing with globalisation, protects from price increases, peacekeeping, threat to national culture, is profitable only for large companies but not for the citizens, leads to foreign investment in the own country, promotes the development of poorer countries, leading to more openness to other cultures, the EU has sufficient power to defend their economic interests, EU protects its citizens from the negative effects of globalisation (Split A) or enables European citizens to better benefit from the positive effects of globalisation (Split B); globalisation as an opportunity or as a threat to the national economy; comparison of the performance of the European economy with the American, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Russian and Brazilian economy; preferred orientation of the national society to meet global challenges.

3. Economic and financial crisis: expected worsening or recovery of the economic crisis; expected development of the individual financial situation of the household in the next months; most important actors to combat the crisis; positive or negative associations with the following terms (image): company, welfare state, competitiveness, free trade, protectionism, globalisation, liberalisation, trade union, reforms, public administration, flexibility, competition, security, and solidarity; attitude towards a free enterprise economy (scale: too strong intervention of the state in the lives of the individuals, economic growth prior to environmental protection (Split A) or environmental protection prior to economic growth (Split B), free competition is a guarantee of prosperity); attitude towards a reduction of the value of material possessions; approval of increased development of new technologies; impression of loss of personal purchasing power; expected change in the living conditions of future generations; suspected improvement of the lives of the young generation in the country by emigrating to another country; most important personal values; values that represent best the EU.

4. Subsidiarity: European, national or local level has the most impact on the own living conditions; sufficient consideration of regional interests in decisions of the European Union.

Only in EU 27 was asked: awareness of the current Swedish presidency of the EU; awareness of the change of presidency to Spain; optimism for the future of the EU; better protection against the economic crisis by maintaining the old currency; mitigation of the negative impact of the economic crisis by the euro; preferred measures the EU should take to combat the financial crisis (scale: regulation of financial services, surveillance and supervision of financial groups, coordinated economic and financial policies of the EU member states, and the supervision by the EU whenever public money is used to rescue financial institutions); preferred measures to improve the performance of the European economy (Split: different response categories in the closed question); preferred investment and supportive measures of the EU to tackle the crisis; assessment of the potential opportunities of the crisis: (Split A: more easy) (Split B: more difficult) to adopt reforms, pursue reforms for the benefit of future generations, the country needs more reforms in order to be prepared for the future (Split A), the reforms of the country are sufficient to face the future (Split B); attitude towards innovative products; areas in which the EU has an advantage over the United States (research, environmental protection, innovative technologies, health system, education, fighting social inequality, fighting unemployment, fighting discrimination, and entrepreneurship); preference for national decision-making or decisions at EU level in the fight against crime, unemployment and terrorism, taxation, defence and foreign affairs, immigration, educational system, pensions, environmental protection, health, social welfare, agriculture and fishery, consumer protection, research, regional policy, energy, competition, transports, economy and fighting inflation.

5. Political priorities in the EU: priorities for the European Union; priorities to ensure economic recovery and to fight climate change; prior measures to boost sustainable growth; prior measures for the EU to promote civil rights and to stabilize the world; perceived global threats and challenges on which the EU should focus in its relations with the rest of the world; preferred role of the UN in these threats and challenges, and deemed useful cooperation in these points between the EU and the UN.

In the member states of the Eurozone was also asked: maintaining the old currency as the most effective protection of the country against the economic crisis.

Demography: nationality; age; left-right self-placement; marital status and family situation; age at end of education; sex; occupation; type of community; household composition and household size; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; financial difficulties during the last year; self-rated social position (scale); internet use (at home, at work, at school).

Also encoded was: date of interview; duration of interview; persons present during the interview; willingness to cooperate; city size; region; weighting factor.