Eurobarometer 83.3 (2015)

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 all question modules are in the standard Eurobarometer context: 1. Standard EU and trend questions, 2. Europe 2020 strategy, 3. Financial and economic crisis, 4. European citizenship, 5. EU budget, 6. Knowledge and opinion about statistics.<br>Topics: 1. Attitudes towards the EU (standard EU and trend questions): life satisfaction; frequency of political discussions about local, national, and European matters with friends and relatives; 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; assessment of the own country’s assumed membership in the EU as a good thing; expectations of benefit from an assumed membership of the own country; assessment of the development in the own country and in the European Union as positive; trust in selected institutions: national legal system, police, army, political parties, regional or local public authorities, national government, national parliament, European Union, and the United Nations; image of the EU; assessment of the immigration of people from other EU member states and from outside the EU as positive; attitude towards additional measures to be taken to fight illegal immigration from outside the EU on EU level, on national level, or on both levels; meaning of the EU to the respondent; right for EU citizens to live or to work in every member state of EU as a good thing; approval of the following statements on the EU: creates conditions for more jobs in Europe, is responsible for austerity in Europe, makes doing business easier in Europe, generates too much bureaucracy, will emerge fairer from the crisis, makes the financial sector behave more responsibly, makes the cost of living cheaper in Europe, makes quality of life better in Europe, helps tackle global threats and challenges, helps protect its citizens, needs a clearer message, is working for its citizens; knowledge of and trust in selected institutions: European Parliament, European Commission, European Central Bank; knowledge test on the EU: number of member states, direct election of the members of the European Parliament by the citizens of each member state, Switzerland is a member of the EU; attitude towards the following issues: European economic and monetary union with one single currency, common foreign policy of all member states, further enlargement, common defence and security policy, free trade and investment agreement between the EU and the USA, common migration policy, common energy policy; attitude towards the creation of an EU army; satisfaction with the democracy in the own country and in the EU; approval of the following statements: respondent understands how the EU works, recognition of the own country’s interests in the EU, EU’s voice counts in the world, globalisation as an opportunity for economic growth, better development of the own country outside the EU, more decisions to be taken at EU level; optimism regarding the future of the EU.

2. Europe 2020 strategy: likelihood to reach the following objectives by 2020: three quarters of people between 20 and 64 years of age having a job, share of funds invested in research and development reaching 3% of the wealth produced in the EU each year, reduction of EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% (compared to 1990), increase of the share of renewable energy in the EU by 20%, increase of energy efficiency in the EU by 20%, reduction of the share of young people leaving school without qualifications to 10%, at least 40% of the people aged 30 to 34 having a higher education degree or diploma, reduction of the number of people living below the poverty line by a quarter, increase of industry’s contribution to the economy to 20% of GDP; EU is going in the right direction to exit the crisis and face new global challenges.

3. Financial and economic crisis: impact of the economic crisis on the job market has already reached its peak; approval of the following statements: measures to reduce public deficit and debt in the own country cannot be delayed, measures to reduce public deficit and debt in the own country are not a priority for now, EU has sufficient power and tools to defend its economic interests globally, private sector is better placed to create new jobs than public sector, use of public money to stimulate private sector investment at EU level; approval of selected measures on EU level with regard to reforming global financial markets: introduction of a tax on financial transactions, introduction of Eurobonds, wage regulation in the financial sector, stricter rules on tax avoidance and tax havens; most important objectives in a European energy union: guaranteeing reasonable energy prices for consumers and companies, guaranteeing continuous energy supply, guaranteeing EU’s independence in the field of energy, environmental protection, interconnecting energy infrastructure, fighting global warming, guaranteeing competitiveness of EU’s industry, reducing energy consumption, pooling EU’s negotiating power towards energy providers, developing renewable energy.

4. 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; most important factors for creating a feeling of community among EU citizens; values that best represent the EU; most important personal values; amount of shared values between the member states; expectations regarding the life of future generations in the EU; approval of selected statements: state intervenes too much in personal lives, too much tolerance, immigrants contribute a lot to the own country, people in the own country have a lot of things in common, respondent understands what is going on the world; likelihood to make use of the ´European Citizens’ Initiative´; most likely political fields to use the ´European Citizens’ Initiative´; awareness of the European flag; attitudes towards the European flag: good symbol for Europe, stands for something good, personal identification with the flag, should be seen on all public buildings in the own country next to national flag.

5. EU budget: attitude towards an increase in the EU budget given its political objectives; assumed fields on which most of the EU budget is spent; preferred fields on which to spend most of the EU budget; EU budget gives good value for money for EU citizens.

6. Knowledge and opinion about statistics: knowledge test on the national economy in 2014: official growth rate, official inflation rate, development of the inflation rate compared to 2013, official unemployment rate; political decisions are made on the basis of statistical information; trust in national official statistics.

Demography: nationality; left-right self-placement; marital status; family situation; age at end of education; sex; age; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; possession of durable goods (entertainment electronics, internet connection, possession of a car, a flat/a house have finished paying for or still paying for); financial difficulties during the last year; internet use (at home, at work, at school); self-reported belonging to the working class, the middle class or the upper class of society; general direction things are going in the own country and in the EU.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; questionnaire split; size of locality; region; language of the interview; nation group, weighting factor.