Eurobarometer 81.2 (March 2014)

Since the early 1970s the European Commission´s Standard & Special Eurobarometer are regularly monitoring the public opinion in the European Union member countries. Principal investigators are the Directorate-General Communication and on occasion other departments of the European Commission or the European Parliament. Over time, candidate and accession countries were included in the Standard Eurobarometer Series. Selected questions or modules may not have been surveyed in each sample. Please consult the basic questionnaire for more information on country filter instructions or other questionnaire routing filters. In this study the following modules are included: 1. Standard EU and trend questions, 2. Economic crisis, 3. European citizenship, 4. European values.<br>Topics: 1. Attitudes towards the EU (standard EU and trend questions): life satisfaction; assessment of the current situation in the following areas: national economy, European economy, personal job situation, financial situation of the own household, national employment situation, quality of life in the own country, quality of life in the EU; expectations for the next twelve months regarding: personal life in general, national economic situation, financial situation of the own household, national employment situation, personal job situation, economic situation in the EU; most important problems in the own country, personally, and in the EU; trust in selected institutions: political parties, national government, national parliament, European Union, regional or local public authorities; image of the EU; meaning of the EU to the respondent; trust in selected European institutions: European Parliament, European Commission, European Central Bank; attitude towards the following issues: European economic and monetary union with one single currency, presentation of the party candidates for the post of the European Commission President at the next European Parliament elections; satisfaction with the democracy in the own country and in the EU; attitude towards a ´United States of Europe´; optimism about the future of the EU.

2. Economic crisis: impact of the economic crisis on the job market has already reached its peak.

3. European citizenship: approval of the following statements: feeling of being a citizen of the EU, knowledge of the rights of EU citizens, desire for more information on the rights of EU citizens; feeling of national and / or European identity; most positive results of the EU.

4. European values: self-rated knowledge about the EU; expected living conditions of future generations in the EU; most important personal values; values that best represent the EU; amount of shared values between member states; approval of selected statements: state intervenes too much in personal lives, necessity for more severe punishment of criminals, immigrants contribute a lot to the own country, people in the own country have a lot in common, respondent understands what is going on in the world.

Demography: nationality; left-right self-placement; marital status; age at end of education; sex; age; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; financial difficulties during the last year; self-rated social position (scale); internet use (at home, at work, at school); self-reported belonging to the working class, the middle class or the upper class of society; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; own voice counts in the own country and in the EU; general direction things are going in the own country and in the EU.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; number of persons present during the interview; respondent cooperation; size of locality; region; language of the interview; nation group; weighting factor.