Eurobarometer 98.2 (2023)

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. Europeans’ priorities, 3. The EU and the Coronavirus pandemic, 4. European citizenship, 5. The EU’s response to the war in Ukraine, 6. Media use and political information.<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; trust in selected institutions: media, political parties, national legal system, police, army, regional or local public authorities, health and medical staff in the own country, national government, national parliament, European Union, United Nations, NATO; meaning of the EU to the respondent; 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); assessment of the full application of EU legislation for Kosovo as a good thing; expectations of benefit from the full application of EU legislation for Kosovo; knowledge of and trust in selected institutions: European Parliament, European Commission, European Central Bank, European Council; 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. Europeans’ priorities: satisfaction with democracy in the own country and in the EU; EU’s voice counts in the world; approval of the following statements: recognition of the own country’s interests in the EU, respect of EU core values by all member states; 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: European economic and monetary union with one single currency, digital single market within the EU, inclusion of highest climate, environmental and labour protection standards in new trade agreements concluded by the EU, European Political Community which brings together leaders of the European continent; approval of the following statements: 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, EU should build partnerships with countries outside the EU to invest in sustainable infrastructure and connect people and countries around the world, minimum wage for workers in each member state, fair taxation of large technology companies in the EU.

3. The EU and the Coronavirus pandemic: satisfaction with the measures taken by the following institutions in order to fight the Coronavirus pandemic: national government, European Union; trust in the EU to make right decisions in the future.

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, people in the EU´s Eastern neighbourhood countries have a lot of things in common with people in the EU, people in the own country have a lot of things in common with people in the EU; most important personal values; values that best represent the EU; knowledge test on the EU: number of member states in the euro area, direct election of European Parliament members by the citizens of each member state, Switzerland is a member of the EU, Iceland is a member of the EU.

5. The EU’s response to the war in Ukraine: satisfaction with the response to the Russian invasion in Ukraine by: national government, European Union; attitude towards the following actions with regard to the Russian invasion in Ukraine: imposing economic sanctions on Russian government / companies / individuals, banning state-owned Russian media from broadcasting in the EU, financing supply and delivery of military equipment to Ukraine, providing humanitarian support to the people affected by the war, welcoming in the EU refugees from Ukraine, providing financial support to Ukraine; attitude towards selected statements on the war in Ukraine: invasion is a threat to security of the EU, invasion is a threat to security of the own country, by standing against the invasion the EU is defending European values, co-operation in defence matters at EU level should be increased, more money should be spent on defence in the EU, member states´ purchase of military equipment should be better coordinated, EU needs to reinforce its capacity to produce military equipment, EU should reduce its dependency on Russian sources of energy as soon as possible, EU should invest massively in renewable energies, renewable energy can limit the price for energy consumption in the long run, increasing energy efficiency of buildings and transport and goods will make us less dependent from energy producers outside the EU, reducing imports of oil and gas and investing in renewable energy is important for our overall security, EU member states should jointly buy energy from other countries to get a better price, personally taken action to reduce own energy consumption or planning to do so; assessment of the financial consequences of the war in Ukraine on: personal life, national economy; attitude towards the effectiveness of the EU recovery plan ‘NextGenerationEU‘.

6. Media use and political information: assessment of the informedness of the people in the own country about European matters; self-rated knowledge about European matters; frequency of the following activities: watch television on a TV set, watch television via the internet, listen to the radio, listen to podcasts, read written press, read news on the internet, use online social networks; preferred sources of information on European political matters; preferred sources of information on the European Union, its policies and institutions; attitude towards selected statements on political information in online social networks: modern way to keep abreast, not trustworthy, can get people interested, good way to have a say; attitude towards selected statements on the situation of the media in the own country: provide trustworthy information, provide information free from political or commercial pressure; attitude towards the following statements on news that misrepresent reality: often to be found, easy to identify, is a problem in the own country, is a problem for democracy in general.

Demography: age; nationality; life satisfaction; satisfaction with daily life; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; general direction things are going in: own country, EU, USA, personal life; EU image; own voice counts in the own country and in the EU; 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; 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; nation group; mode of interview; 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; language of the interview; region; weighting factor.