Eurobarometer 84.1 (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 the following modules are included: 1. Parlemeter 2015 (part II): Attachment and belonging to the European Union, identity, citizenship, policy priorities, 2. Parlemeter 2015 (part I): Migration and the economic and social situation.<br>Topics: 1. Parlemeter 2015 (part II: Attachment and belonging to the European Union, identity, citizenship, policy priorities): recent reception of media reports on the European Parliament; impression of the European Parliament due to media reports; self-rated knowledge about the activities of the European Parliament; level of interest in European affairs; image of the European Parliament; current and desired importance of the role of the European Parliament within the EU; trust in the European Parliament and reasons for trusting or not trusting; knowledge test on the EU: direct election of the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) by the citizens of each member state, joint determination of the EU budget by European Parliament and member states, joint agreements on laws on EU level by European Parliament and member states, equal number of MEPs of each member state; seat allocation of the MEPs according to nationality or to political affinities; adoption of the European Parliament’s decisions according to: interests of the member states from which the MEPs are coming, political affinities of the MEPs, both; preferred policies at EU level to be promoted by the European Parliament; prioritized values to be defended by the European Parliament; most important elements of the European identity; most important aspects in strengthening the feeling of being a European citizen; things that bring citizens of different EU member states together are more important than things that separate; feeling of attachment towards: own city, own region, own country, European Union; assessment of the own country’s membership in the EU as a good thing; benefits from the EU membership and reasons for benefit; own voice counts in the EU and in the own country, own country´s voice counts in the EU; preference for enhancing common European policy in important areas on instigation of only some member states or by all of them (two speed Europe); assessment of the situation in selected areas if own country were outside the EU; time of expected return to economic growth in the own country; development of the financial situation of the own household in the last two years and expected development in the next two years; main challenges for the EU and its member states in order to face the future; assessment of the activities of the member states to face the economic and financial crisis as: individual, coordinated with other member states.

2. Parlemeter 2015 (part I: Migration and the economic and social situation): preference for more decision-making on EU level; assessment of the allocation of financial support to countries facing the most migratory flows; attitude towards the following statements: number of asylum seekers should be better distributed among the member states, distribution of asylum seekers should be decided at EU level on the basis of binding quotas; attitude towards selected statements: simplifying legal migration procedures as a means to fight illegal migration, common legal migration procedures in all member states, own country needs legal migrants for own economy; attitude towards nationals from other EU member states in the own country: good for national economy, contribution to the diversity of cultural life.

Demography: nationality; left-right self-placement; marital status; sex; age; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; 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; 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; opinion leadership; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; general direction things are going in the own country and in the EU.

Additionally coded was: 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 (only in BE, LU, ES, FI, EE, LV, MT); nation group; weighting factor.