Eurobarometer 93.1 (2020)

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. The EU and the Coronavirus outbreak, 3. Europeans´ priorities, 4. European citizenship, 5. EU budget.<br>Topics: 1. Attitudes towards the EU (standard EU and trend questions): assessment of the current situation in the following areas: own country in general, national economy, European economy, personal job situation, financial situation of the own household, national employment situation, provision of public services in the own country; expectations for the next twelve months regarding: personal life in general, situation in the own country 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; general direction things are going in the own country, the EU, and in the USA; trust in selected institutions: media, political parties, national legal system, police, army, public administration, regional or local public authorities, health and medical staff in the own country, national government, national parliament, European Union, United Nations; trust in people in the own country; image of the EU; meaning of the EU to the respondent; most suitable attributes for describing the EU: modern, democratic, protective, efficient, forward-looking, remote; 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 full application of EU legislation for the Turkish Cypriot Community (TCC) as a good thing; expectations of benefit from the full application of EU legislation for the Turkish Cypriot Community (TCC); knowledge of and trust in selected institutions: European Parliament, European Commission, European Central Bank; approval of the following statements: respondent understands how the EU works, better development of the own country outside the EU, more decisions to be taken at EU level; optimism about the future of the EU.

2. The EU and the Coronavirus outbreak: satisfaction with the measures taken by the following institutions in order to fight the Coronavirus pandemic: national government, European Union institutions, World Health Organisation (WHO); attitude towards the measures taken by public authorities in the own country to fight COVID-19 and its effects: focus too much on health to the detriment of the economy, focus too much on economy to the detriment of health, balance has been reached; attitude towards the limitations to public liberties; preferred EU measures to respond to the Coronavirus outbreak; trust in the EU to make right decisions in the future; attitude towards the following statements with regard to the consequences of the Coronavirus outbreak: will have serious financial consequences for respondent, will have serious economic consequences for the own country, EU should put in place an economic plan to help all EU member states recover, EU should become less dependent on other countries in the world to cover its critical needs (e.g. medical and pharmaceutical goods), use of teleworking will increase in the own country, people in the own country will turn more to local providers, EU should be given the means to better deal in the future with crises; extent of solidarity between EU member states in fighting the Coronavirus pandemic; expected point of time by which the own country’s economy will recover from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 outbreak; primary sources of information during the Coronavirus outbreak; assessment of the difficulty to cope with confinement measures.

3. Europeans´ priorities: satisfaction with democracy in the own country and in the EU; own voice counts in the own country and in the EU; approval of the following statements: recognition of the own country’s interests in the EU, voice of EU citizens should be more taken into account for decisions relating to the future of Europe, respect of EU core values by all member states; attitude towards the following issues: European economic and monetary union with one single currency, digital single market within the EU, creation of a European public-private fund in order to support SMEs, implementation of new measures at EU level to improve gender equality in the workplace, inclusion of highest climate, environmental and labour protection standards in new trade agreements concluded by the EU; 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, public money should be used to stimulate private sector investment at EU level, globalisation as an opportunity for economic growth, measures to reduce youth unemployment in the own country cannot be delayed, measures to reduce youth unemployment at EU level cannot be delayed, minimum wage for workers in each member state, free-market economy should go with a high level of social protection, fair taxation of large technology companies in the EU; most important objectives in a European Green Deal: introduction of a tax on products imported from third countries with lower climate policy standards than the EU, move towards a zero pollution ambition, fight against plastic waste, promote ´Circular Economy´, measures to make the EU carbon neutral by 2050, support EU farmers in order to provide Europeans with affordable and safe food, reduce energy consumption, develop renewable energy, protect biodiversity; attitude towards the following issues: common foreign policy of all member states, common defence and security policy, common trade policy, common migration policy, common energy policy, further enlargement, free movement of EU citizens; attitude towards the following issues: common European Asylum system, reinforcement of EU external borders; feeling towards immigration of people from: other EU member states, outside the EU; approval of selected statements: immigrants contribute a lot to the own country, own country should help refugees, EU’s voice counts in the world; attitude towards the right for EU citizens to: live in every member state of the EU, work in every member state of the EU.

4. European citizenship: feeling of attachment towards: own city, own country, European Union, Europe; 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; most positive results of the EU; most important factors for creating a feeling of community among EU citizens; approval of selected statements: people in the own country have a lot of things in common, people in the EU have a lot of things in common; approval of selected statements: quality of life was better before, respondent understands what is going on the world, confidence in the future; knowledge test on the EU: number of member states, direct election of European Parliament members by the citizens of each member state, Switzerland is a member of the EU.

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 on.

Demography: age; nationality; life satisfaction; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; left-right self-placement; marital status; age at end of education; highest completed level of full time education; sex; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; 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.

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.