Eurobarometer 40 (Oct-Nov 1993)

Attitude to unification of Europe. Poverty in personal surroundings, in
the country and in Europe. Topics: Contentment with life; satisfaction
with democracy; expected personal as well as general economic
development; expected development of general employment situation as
well as of one´s own occupational situation; personal opinion
leadership and frequency of political discussions; postmaterialism;
frequency of obtaining news from television, radio and newspapers;
recently (or split: in the last 3 months) obtaining information about
the EC and its institutions; most important sources of information
about the EU; interest in European policies; judgement on one´s own
extent to which informed about the EC and its institutions; interest in
further information about the EC; interest in a telephone or fax
hotline to ask for information about the EC; attitude to purchase of
broadcast time to disseminate EC information on television; knowledge
of information services of the EC; attitude to unification of Western
Europe; advantageousness of EC membership of one´s own country; regret
of a possible failure of the EC; judgement on the current speed of
European unification as well as desired speed of unification; desired
division of responsibility in selected political areas among national
government or EC; feeling as a European; approval of a European
Government responsible to a European Parliament; satisfaction with the
functioning of democracy in the EC; attitude to the EC Commission, the
Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, the European Court of
Justice, the Common Market, the Treaty of Maastricht, agriculture
reform, the GATT negotiations with the USA as well as the efforts of
the EC to solve the Yugoslavia conflict; most important problems of the
EC; decision behavior with a referendum about the Treaty of Maastricht;
attitude to selected possibilities of European cooperation in monetary
policy, social policy, foreign policy, combating crime, the right to
vote, the economy and defense, as provided in the Maastricht Treaty;
institutions responsible for providing information about the EC to the
population; hope for the European market and expected advantageousness
for one´s own country; intent to participate in the European Election
in June 1994; party preference; controversies which could influence
one´s own voting decision; judgement on the highest national court as
well as the European Court of Justice; European countries visited in
1993 and checks at the border crossings experienced in this. Most
important problems of the world; perceived poverty in one´s country, in
the immediate vicinity as well as in the EC in general; poverty in the
circle of family or friends; frequency of perception of poverty (split:
social fringe groups); frequency of direct contacts with people in
poverty; poverty from origins or new poverty; perceived reasons for
falling into poverty (or split:social fringe group); development of
poverty in the immediate vicinity in the last 10 years; perceived
chance of the poor to free themselves from their situation; existence
of hopeless cases; classification of selected situations in life and
circumstances as indicators for the attribute poverty; parents who
cannot raise their children due to poverty and people without adequate
health care in one´s country; perceived injustice of society regarding
the respondent; expected social mobility of one´s own children;
earlier, current as well as future expected feeling of exclusion from
society; demands of an up-to-date standard of living and demands
currently not fulfilled (scale); perceived deprivations in the area of
welfare, society and one´s own psyche; judgement on one´s own quality
of life on selected situations and areas of life through judging one´s
own residence, the environment, income, occupational situation,
standard of living, leisure time, nutrition, demand on social services,
traffic opportunities, one´s own condition of health, time available,
level of education, recognition from others as well as dealing with
other people; necessity of restrictions due to insufficient income;
recommendation for elimination of poverty; preferred areas for the
fight against poverty; attitude to provision of minimum support levels
in selected areas of daily life; attitude to a minimum income;
judgement on national efforts against poverty; knowledge of a legally
guaranteed minimum income and of the prerequisites for entitlement;
minimum income as absolute right for every one or tied to concessions
and conditions; persons and institutions that should take part in the
fight against poverty and social exclusion; judgement on media
reporting about poverty; most important tasks of voluntary relief
organizations; opinion on a joining together of those in need of help;
judgement on the trade unions, employers as well as the European
Community in the fight against poverty and regarding those in need;
knowledge about the program of the EC against poverty; importance of
actions of the European Community against poverty; consequences of the
European domestic market for the gap between poor and rich; social
dimension of the European domestic market; attitude to consideration of
social questions in the Maastricht Accord; activities that one would
take over for the benefit of poorer persons and those in need of help;
personal social activities up to now; regularity of donations to relief
organizations, beggars, churches or those in need known personally;
behavior at the polls in the last election to the national parliament;
number of children; age at completion of training; possession of
selected entertainment electronics devices; unemployment within the
last five years and length of this unemployment; superior function and
span of control; employment in the public sector; superior function of
spouse of respondent; residential status; self-classification of
religiousness and frequency of weekly church attendance; general
development of personal household income in the last 5 years as well as
expected further development in the next five years;
self-classification of standard of living of family (scale); financial
problems of household in the last twelve months in paying rent,
interest, water or electricity bills, obtaining food and repaying
loans; getting by with household income; personal experience as
homeless; possession of a telephone. The following questions were also
posed in Belgium: knowledge about the Belgian presidency in the Council
of Ministers; importance of this presidency for the country. The
following questions were also posed in East and West Germany, the
Netherlands, Belgium and France: victimization and fear of crime;
general attitude to the police of the country; type of contacts with
the police in the last two years; attitude to closer cooperation of the
police forces, the EC member countries and attitude to EUROPOL;
attitude to elimination of border checks. The following questions were
also posed in France, Spain, Great Britain, Western and Eastern Germany
as well as Italy: countries of Europe to which one feels the closest as
well as assessment of political reliability of individual member
countries of Europe; perceived changes in the European currency system;
inadequacies in the European currency system or the conduct of member
countries as reason for current difficulties; country responsible for
perceived currency difficulties; expected influence of change in the
monetary system on the economic and monetary unification of Europe
intended in 1999. Also encoded were: date of interview; city size.
Indices: opinion leadership; postmaterialism; EC support; occupational
status; media usage; social class.