Eurobarometer 60.1 (Oct-Nov 2003)

Standard questions of Eurobarometer. Citizenship and feeling of
belonging. Traud and tax fraud. European Parliament.

Topics: Satisfaction of interviewees with their present life, whether
they attempted to persuade others close to them to share their views on
subjects they held strong opinions about, whether they discussed
political matters, and what the European Union´s priorities should be.
Additional questions focused on the respondents´ knowledge of and
opinions about the European Union (EU), including sources of
information about the EU and whether their country had benefited from
being an EU member. Respondents were asked questions concerning
citizenship and their overall feeling of belonging, such as what was
most important to them: family, friendship, work, the arts/culture,
politics, health, or money. Respondents were asked how important the
following values were to them: rule of law, respect for human life,
human rights, individual freedom, democracy, tolerance, peace, or
solidarity. Respondents were asked if they agreed that the State
intervened too much in their lives, criminals needed help and
understanding, immigrants were a threat to their way of life, economic
growth must be a priority even if it affects the environment, and that
free competition was the best guarantee for economic prosperity.
Respondents were also asked if they´d be willing to learn one or more
foreign language and what would be the motivation for doing so (i.e.,
to use on holidays abroad, to get a better job, to be able to
understand people from other cultures, or for personal satisfaction),
if they´d be interested or involved in the sports, arts and culture,
music, and lifestyles of other countries in the EU and in countries
outside of the EU, toward which country they felt the greatest
affinity, whether the United States and the EU played a positive or
negative role regarding peace in the world, fighting terrorism, growth
of the world´s economy, the fight against poverty in the world, and the
protection of the environment. Additional questions focused on fraud
and whether respondents had read or seen anything about fraud, tax
evasion, money laundering, or counterfeiting of goods in their country,
in other countries of the EU, in the countries which are candidates to
join the EU, or elsewhere in the world. Respondents were asked what
type of fraud worried them the most (e.g., hacking, pirating software,
illegal data trading, counterfeiting of goods, commercial fraud like
cheating on prices, weights, and goods, customs fraud, VAT fraud, or
misappropriation of aids and grants), how well the media informed those
in the EU about various types of fraud in the other countries of the EU
as well as in their respective country, and whether using the police
force, customs services, taxation authority, courts, private auditing
firms, or the media was the most effective way to fight the EU and its
budget from being defrauded. Respondents were also asked questions
regarding the European Parliament, specifically how many European
Parliament elections they voted in and if they were going to vote in
the next one, how much impact the European Parliament had on their
everyday lives, and whether the European Parliament election campaign
should mainly focus on agriculture, environment, employment,
immigration, education, foreign policy, enlargement of the EU, or the
rights of the EU citizen. Those queried were also asked if they were
interested in knowing more about the European Parliament whether via
the television, radio, Internet, or newspapers.

Demography: Gender, age, marital status, level of education, current
occupation, household income, who contributed most to the household
income, whether the respondent resided in a rural area or village, a
small town, or a large town, and how much toward the left or right did
the respondent consider their political views.