Eurobarometer 77.3 (2012)

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. Europe 2020 strategy, 3. Financial and economic crisis, 4. European citizenship, 5. European values.<br>Topics: 1. Attitudes towards the EU (standard EU and trend questions): life satisfaction; frequency of political discussions on national, local and European politics; own opinion leadership; assessment of the economic situation in the country, in Europe, and the world economy, assessment of the personal job and financial situation and th.e national employment situation; expectations about life in general, about the economic situation in the world, in the EU and in the country (economic outlook), about the financial situation of the household, the personal job situation and the employment situation in the country; comparison of the situation in the country with the average of the EU (economic situation and the employment situation, cost of living and quality of life, environmental situation, public finance, future prospects and situation of youth in the country); most important political issues at EU level and at the country level; personally concerned by these issues; good overall development in the country, the European Union and the world; trust in political parties, the national government, the national Parliament, the European Union, the United Nations, regional or local public authorities; image of the EU; personal associations with the EU; knowledge of European institutions (European Parliament, European Commission, Council of the European Union, European Central Bank and European Court of Justice of the European Union) and trust in these institutions; knowledge tst about the EU (number of member states, members of the EU Parliament are directly elected, and Switzerland is a member of the EU); support for a monetary union, a common foreign policy, EU enlargement, and a common defense and security policy; satisfaction with democracy in thecountry and in the European Union; agreement with the following statements: personal understanding how the EU works, national interest protected in the EU, EU membership increases feeling of safty, your voice counts in the EU and in the country, the EU’s voice counts in the world, globalisation is an opportunity for economic growth, globalisation requires global governance, EU protects its citizens from the negative effects of globalisation (split A) or EU enables citizens to benefit from the positive effects of globalisation (Split B); globalisation as an opportunity for national companies or as a threat to employment and companies in the country; policy fields that require greater support; assessment of the current speed of building Europe and preferred speed; again all: actual and prefered main objective of the building of Europe; optimism about the future of the EU.

2. Europe 2020 strategy: importance of support for research and development, education system, economicdevelop by expanding high speed Internet, support for more environmentally friendly production, support for entrepreneurship, modernising of the labor market and helping poor and socially excluded people (scale); canpolitical goals be reached by 2020: full employment, increasing research funding, reduction of the greenhouse gas, 20% renewable energy sources, to increaseing energy efficiency, reduction of the number of young people leaving school without qualifications, increasing educational achievement of young people, and reduction of the poverty rate by a quarter; evaluation of EU policy objectives.

3. Financial and economic crisis: expected impact of the economic crisis on the job market (peak reached versus the worst is still to come); prospects of one´s household; best actor to tackle the financial and economic crisis (national Government, European Union, United States, G20 or International Monetary Fund (IMF); perceived needs for reformsin the own country, for cooperation among EU Member States in coping with the crisis, for reducing the public deficit (Split: immediate versus later); reducing the public deficit and stimulating economic growth is possible; perceived power of the EU to defend the economic interests of Europe in the global economy; the countries of the EU need a stronger industrial base; claim for expanding of the service sector in the EU countries; crisis will strengthen the EU in the long run; feeling closer to other European citizens due to the crisis; need for closer cooperation between the EU countries, again all: preferred measures to improve the European economy (increase the number of working hours, improve educational achievement, easier access to credit for companies, easier start-ups, energy efficiency, investment in research and development, in transport as well as in environmentally friendly products and services, raising the retirement age, reducing public deficits and debt, strengthen regulation of financial markets); evaluation of the effectiveness of selected measures to combat the economic and financial crisis ( more important role for the EU in regulating financial services, stronger coordination of economic policy among all EU member states, stronger coordination of economic and financial policies among the countries of the euro area); attitude towards selected EU measures to reform the global financial markets (stougher rules on tax evasion and tax havens, tax on profits made by banks and on financial transactions, the introduction of Eurobonds and tighter rules for credit rating agencies, scale); again all: assessment of the success in combating the crisis through the national government, the European Union and the United States.

4. European citizenship: attachement to the city, the country and the European Union; expectations of the European Union (open question); identification as citizens of the EU; knowledge of EU citizens´ rights, interest on information about EU citizens’ rights; identification as citizens of the country, citizens of the country and European, European and citizens of the country or as European; appropriate measures for strengthening identification as an EU citizen; most important elements of the European identity (e.g. history, single currency, culture etc.); link to the community empowerment among EU citizens; again all: the EU´s most positive achievements; knowledge of the European flag and attitudes toward the flag (good symbol for Europe, stands for something good, identification with the flag, should be hoist up on all public buildings next to the national flag); visits to another EU country or contact with people from another EU country in the last year; reception of print media and television programs in a foreign language as well as Internet orders for goods or services from another EU country in the last year; personal benefit of selected achievements of the EU; level of governance with the greatest impact living conditions (European, national or regional level); best forms of political participation; probability of the personal use of the European Citizens´ initiative and possible policies.

5. European valuese: attitudes towards selected statements (too much interference of the state, calling for more equality despite limitations on the freedom of the individual, stronger punishments for criminals, immigrants make great contribution to the country, priority of economic growth (Split: Environmental Protection ) in the country even if it affects the environment (Split: economic growth), free competition as guarantee for economic prosperity, more importance should be given to spare time than to work, easier recognition of shared values among Europeans); perceived similarity of the EU Member States in terms of shared values; most important values for personal happiness, again all: general personal value preferences; values for which the EU stands for.
In Iceland, Macedonia, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro were also asked: assessment of EU membership as a good thing; evaluation of EU accession as an advantage or disadvantage for the country.
In Cyprus were also asked: evaluation of the full application of EU legislation as a good thing; evaluation of EU accession as an advantage or disadvantage for the country.

Demography: nationality; family situation; age at end of education; sex; age; occupation; professional position; degree of urbanization; 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.

Also encoded was: city size; language of the interview (only in Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Macedonia and Turkey); weighting factor.