Eurobarometer 41.0 (Mar-May 1994)

The major topics of this Eurobarometer are: 1. Product knowledge 2.
Questions on Europe, European unification and the European Election 3.
European currency 4. Image of countries and quality products 5. Tobacco
and smoking 6. Donating blood and blood transfusion; danger of
infection with AIDS. Topics: General contentment with life;
satisfaction with democracy; interest in politics; personal opinion
leadership. Product knowledge: knowledge about the term ´Feta´ (sheep
cheese); general associations with this term and associated country;
Feta as general term for a specific type of cheese or tied to a
designation of origin; frequency of consumption of cheese in general
and especially Feta. Questions on Europe: interest in European
policies; frequency of obtaining news from television, radio and
newspapers; assessment of personal degree of information about the EU
(split: EC) and its institutions; significance of national membership
in the EU (split: EC); advantageousness of EU membership (split: EC
membership) for one´s own country; judgement on the speed of
unification of the European countries; desired speed of an EU
unification (split: EC); approval of a European Government responsible
to a European Parliament; preference for national or European
responsibility in selected political areas; satisfaction with the
functioning of democracy in the EU (split: EC); attitude to a
Europe-wide uniform currency, a European Central Bank, a common foreign
policy and a common defense policy; support of the European Commission
and the president by the European Parliament; attitude to the same
rights for the European Parliament in comparison to the national
governments; attitude to a right to vote for EC foreigners in municipal
elections and to candidacy of EC foreigners in municipal elections;
attitude to acceptance of responsibility by a European Government if a
national government no longer is effective; attitude to the European
domestic market; knowledge and judgement on the ´White Book´ on
employment, growth and competition in Europe; extent to which informed
about the European Parliament; knowledge about the date for the next
European Election; intent to participate in the election and party
preference; most important reasons for non-participation in the
European Election; voting for party, voting for candidate and the
importance of political contents for the voting decision; importance of
national topics for one´s own voting decision in the European Election;
most important topics in the personal decision for the European
Election; desire for more power for the European Parliament; perceived
acceleration of border crossing since January 1993; knowledge about the
changes in taxation of products in crossing borders within the EC;
personally profiting from this new ruling; expected changes in price
level and in product selection through elimination of border checks;
future prospects of the European Union regarding joining by further
countries, a uniform European currency, common military forces and a
uniform state in which studies, work and life know no national borders.
European currency: degree of familiarity of the ECU and most important
source of information; use of the ECU up to now as well as intended
future use; knowledge about current usability of the ECU and interest
in further information; expected effects of the replacement of national
currency by ECU; attitude to immediate as well as future introduction
of the ECU; general approval of a common currency. Image of countries
and quality products: degree of familiarity of symbols for the
designation of quality products; most important purchase criteria for
products (other than food); requirement of a product with the
designation quality product; selected countries (Germany, Spain,
France, Italy, United Kingdom, EC, USA, Japan) with which one soonest
would associate production of quality products. Personal native
language; detailed information on European languages spoken in one´s
household as well as those learned and mastered by the respondent.
Tobacco and smoking: selected reasons that could move a smoker to quit
smoking; general attitude to smoking and public smoking ban (scale);
smoking as individual decision or a matter also impacting others and to
this extent needing to be regulated publicly. Donating blood and blood
transfusion: media and information material with which one recently
received information on donating blood; knowledge test about the
usability of blood, blood plasma as well as about blood groups, blood
pressure, hemophilia and non-perishability of blood; knowledge about
frequency of ability to donate plasma or blood; personally donating
blood plasma; frequency of personally donating blood and plasma;
considering personally donating blood or plasma; last personal blood
donation; reasons for refusing to donate blood in general as well as
particularly in the last three years; receipt of a blood transfusion or
knowledge of a person who has received a blood transfusion; assumed
reasons why people donate blood or why they do not donate blood;
personal acceptance of donor blood or only one´s own blood; attitude to
increased costs of trade in blood donated free; acceptance of financial
or other compensation for blood donors or blood plasma donors;
knowledge about the plan of the EU to satisfy the need for blood and
blood products from voluntary and free donation of blood by EC
citizens; judgement on the importance of such a plan; preference for a
national or EC-managed action; assessment of the development of safety
of blood transfusions in the last few years; assumption that blood and
blood products from one´s own country are the safest; countries of
origin of the safest blood; expected influence of AIDS on the safety of
blood products, donation of blood, blood transfusion, recept of an
injection and of an operation; opinion on continual praesence of the
topic AIDS; desire for more information about AIDS; opinion on the
relativly high costs of AIDS research; personal impact of the topic
AIDS; knowledge and opinion about the paths of communication and risk
of infection with AIDS (scale); assumed increase in the risk of cancer
from consumption of selected food products. Demography: self-assessment
on a left-right continuum (split, 5-point scale and 10-point scale);
party allegiance; party preference; behavior at the polls in the last
national election; union membership of respondent or member of
household; possession of durable consumer goods; self-assessment of
social class; religiousness; possession of a telephone. The following
question was also posed in Belgium: degree of familiarity of the Office
Humanitaire (ECHO). The following question was also posed in Denmark:
judgement on the change of term from EC to EU. The following questions
were also posed in Germany: opinion on the EC contribution to solving
the current economic problems in the country; attitude to the level of
German EC contributions. The following question was also posed in
Greece: influence of the EC domestic market on daily life. The
following question was also posed in Spain: familiarity of the most
important election campaign topics in the European Election. The
following question was also posed in France: the significance of the
Maastricht Accord for the protection of the Franc. The following
question was also posed in Ireland: attitude to Irish participation in
a common European defense agreement. The following question was also
posed in Italy: expected direct participation of the country in the
planned currency union. The following question was also posed in
Portugal: attitude to extension of the EU to Austria, Sweden, Finland
and Norway. The following questions were also posed in Norway:
judgement on the EES Agreement; attitude to Norway´s joining the EU as
an important and lasting political solution for the country; agreement
or rejection of a referendum on joining; significance of the result of
the referendums in Sweden and Finland for one´s own attitude to
Norway´s joining the EU as well as for the general result of the
referendum in Norway; importance of the negotiations of Sweden and
Finland for Norway´s joining; preferred sequence or simultaneously
conducting the referendums in Sweden and Norway; personal behavior at
the polls given a positive result of the referendums in Sweden and
Finland; expected influence on daily life of Norway´s joining; positive
or negative influence of Norway´s negotiations with the EU on one´s own
attitude to joining the EU; trust in selected Norwegian organizations
and the media regarding their information about the EU; expected
positive or negative effects of Norwegian membership on selected areas
of life; personal behavior at the polls in the referendum on Norway´s
joining the EC in 1972; interest in the negotiations between the EC and
Norway and expected future membership of the country. The following
questions were also posed in Greece: knowledge about the EC (split: EU)
presidency of one´s own country; importance of this presidency for
one´s own country. The following question was also posed to women:
areas in which the women´s program and women´s policies of the EC
(split: EU) have had a positive effect, occupationally or privately.
The following questions were also posed to smokers: preferred form of
use of tobacco; reasons that could move the respondent personally to
quit smoking. Also encoded was: date of interview; length of interview;
number of persons present during interview; willingness of respondent
to cooperate.