Eurobarometer 94.3 (2021)

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. 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 media: written press, radio, TV, internet, online social networks; trust in selected institutions: 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, NATO; 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; 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, 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.

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, regional and local authorities in the own country, European Union; 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 be given the means to better deal in the future with crises; expected point of time by which the own country’s economy will recover from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 outbreak; attitude towards the effectiveness of the EU recovery plan to address the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and to invest in a green, digital, social and more resilient EU; attitude towards the limitations to public liberties; assessment of the difficulty to cope with confinement measures; attitude towards the following statements: vaccines are being developed, tested and authorised too quickly to be safe, vaccines could have long term side-effects that we do not know yet, a vaccine is the only way to end the pandemic, European Union is playing a key role in ensuring access to COVID-19 vaccines in the own country, no understanding why people are reluctant to get vaccinated; preferred time for getting vaccinated; most trustworthy institutions or persons regarding the provision of information about COVID-19 vaccines.

3. Europeans’ priorities: satisfaction with democracy 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; positive associations with the following terms: free trade, globalisation, digital transformation of economy and society; 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: 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, minimum wage for workers in each member state, 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 climate 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.

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, Iceland is a member of the EU.

5. 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, read written press, use the internet, use online social networks; preferred sources of information on national political matters; preferred sources of information on the European Union, its policies and institutions; assessment of the presentation of the EU in the national media as positive; attitude towards selected statements on the situation of the media in the own country: provide trustworthy information, provide a diversity of views and opinions, provide information free from political or commercial pressure, public service media are free from political 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; internet use (at home, at work, at school); 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; self-reported belonging to the working class, the middle class or the upper class of society; life satisfaction; left-right self-placement; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; EU image; general direction things are going in: own country, EU, USA, personal life; expectations regarding the life of future generations in the EU.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; mode of interview; date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; language of the interview; size of locality; region; nation group; weighting factor.