Eurobarometer 79.5 (2013)

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 the following modules are included: 1. Information on and role of the European Parliament, 2. Knowledge about European institutions and the European Parliament, 3. Present and future of the European Parliament, 4. European identity, 5. Globalisation challenges.<br>Topics: 1. Information on and role of the European Parliament: naming of three European institutions; image of the European Parliament; recent reception of media reports on the European Parliament.

2. Knowledge about European institutions and the European Parliament: seat allocation of the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) according to nationality or to political affinities; adoption of the European Parliament’s decisions according to: interests of the member states from which the MEPs are coming, political affinities of the MEPs, both; knowledge of the date of the next European elections in the own country; knowledge test on the EU: direct election of the members of the European Parliament by the citizens of each member state, joint determination of the EU budget by European Parliament and member states, joint agreements on laws on EU level by European Parliament and member states, equal number of MEPs of each member state; knowledge test on European institutions: assignment of the following attributes to the European Commission, the European Parliament, or to the Council of the European Union: members are elected by universal suffrage, puts forward EU’s laws, is composed of ministers from each member state; institutions that best represent the EU; level of interest in European affairs; topics or policy areas more information is desired on.

3. Present and future of the European Parliament: importance of the role of the European Parliament within the EU and development over the last ten years; desired importance; preferred policies at EU level to be promoted by the European Parliament; prioritized fields of action in view of the economic and financial crisis; preference for national or for coordinated measures with other EU countries to protect citizens from the crisis; prioritized values to be defended by the European Parliament; things that bring citizens of different EU member states together are more important than things that separate; preference for enhancing common European policy in important areas on instigation of only some member states or by all of them (two speed Europe); feeling of attachment towards: own city, own region, own country, European Union; assessment of the own country’s membership in the EU as a good thing; benefits from the EU membership; own voice counts in the EU and in the own country, own country´s voice counts in the EU; most effective ways of political participation in the EU; expected involvement of citizens in European affairs in ten years.

4. European identity: development of the feeling of European identity of the own country’s people compared to ten years ago; most important elements of the European identity; most important aspects in strengthening the feeling of being a European citizen; satisfaction with the democracy in the own country and in the EU; increased readiness to vote in the European elections in order to influence the election of the president of the European Commission; preference for direct election of the president of the European Commission by the European citizens and main reasons; main challenges for the EU and its member states in order to face the future.

5. Globalisation challenges: euro has mitigated the negative effects of the crisis; expected adoption of the euro by the own country by 2025; most important actors to enable citizens to most effectively benefit from the positive effects of globalisation; most important actors to protect citizens most effectively from the negative effects of globalisation; country or group of countries estimated to be the biggest economic power in the world in 2025; preference for the implementation of the following measures at national or at EU level: supervision of banks, regulation of bonuses for bankers, guarantees for bank deposits of citizens, support for banks in difficulty; assessment of the amount of the EU budget (1 % of the GDP of all member states) as appropriate; preferred fields to spend the EU budget on; most important initiatives to improve the performance of the European economy: increase number of working hours, improve education and professional training, invest in research and innovation, easier access to credit for companies, easier conditions to set up a business, more efficient use of energy, invest in transport, invest in environmentally friendly products and services, increase retirement age, reduce public deficit and debt, strengthen regulation of financial markets.

Demography: nationality; left-right self-placement; marital status; age at end of education; sex; age; occupation; professional position; type of community; 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.

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.