Eurobarometer 71.3 (Jun-Jul 2009)

Globalisation, personal values and priorities, European identity, future of the European Union, social problems and welfare, and European elections.

Topics: 1. Standard trends and attitudes towards the EU: general life satisfaction; assessment of the situation of the national and the European economy, and the world economy; assessment of the personal job situation, and the financial situation of the household; assessment of the situation on the labour market in the own country, and the situation of the environment; future expectations in the above fields; most important problems of the country and of the respondent; EU membership as a good thing; benefit from the country’s membership in the EU; development of the own country and of the EU in the right direction; trust in institutions (justice, political parties, national government, national parliament, European Union, and United Nations); positive or negative image of the EU; most important features of the EU for the respondent; more economic stability through the country’s membership in the EU and in the euro area; own voice counts in the European Union and in the own country (efficacy); understanding of the processes in the EU; voice of the own country counts in the EU; adequate consideration of national interests in EU decision-making; knowlegde of the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank; trust in these institutions; attitude towards a European Monetary Union; attitude towards the EU enlargement; assessment of the speed of building Europe as different in the European countries; preference for more or less decision-making at European level in the areas of: fighting unemployment, protecting social rights, ensuring economic growth, fighting organized crime and terrorism, food safety, environmental protection, health, equality between men and women, supporting agriculture, promoting democracy and world peace, cooperation in research and innovation, securing energy supply; assessment of the issue competence of the European Union in the areas mentioned above (10-step scale); preferred measures to strengthen the European Union (Split: setting different response categories).
EU Presidency, only in EU 27: awareness of the current EU presidency by the Czech Republic; knowledge of the change of presidency to Sweden; only in the Czech Republic: significance of the current EU Presidency for the own country; only in Sweden: importance of the takeover of the Presidency for the own country.

2. The EU, the world, and globalisation: most important factors for the global influence of a country or of a group of countries; allocation of these factors to the EU; attitude towards globalisation (scale: opportunity for economic growth, increases social inequalities, demand for global governance); globalisation as an opportunity or a threat to national economy; EU protects its citizens from the negative effects of globalisation (Split A) or enables European citizens to better benefit from the positive effects of globalisation (Split B); assessment of the influence of the global economic situation on the national economy; comparison of the performance of the European economy with the American, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Russian, and Brazilian economy.

3. Global governance in the context of the economic crisis, role of the EU: major actors to combat the financial and economic crisis (national government, European Union, United States, G20, IMF (International Monetary Fund)); the EU has sufficient power to defend its economic interests; preferred measures of the EU to protect citizens from the effects of the financial and economic crisis.

4. Values and priorities: attitude towards a free enterprise economy (scale: state intervenes too much in the lives of the individuals, economic growth prior to environmental protection (Split A), or environmental protection prior to economic growth (Split B), free competition is a guarantee of prosperity); attitude towards a devaluation of the significance of material values; desire for increased development of new technologies; preferred orientation of the national society to meet global challenges; preferred speed for social change (in small steps, or in rapid radical action); financial priorities of the respondent (e.g., paying bills, saving for retirement, or for emergencies); salary, security, or professional interest as the main criteria for work.

5. Human rights: aspects of human rights that should be prioritized in the foreign policy of the European Union; assessment of the EU´s efforts to protect human rights; self-assessment of knowledge on the activities of the EU regarding the global protection of human rights; preferred part of the world in which the European Union should strengthen its efforts to protect human rights.

6. Identity: main elements of the European identity; most important characteristics of the national identity, and the European identity; European identity, world citizens, inhabitant of the region, or inhabitant of the home country.

7. Future of the European Union in 2030: optimistic or pessimistic expectations; expected simplification of life in the EU; future expectations of the society in the European Union regarding the importance of economy and environment, solidarity and individualism, work and leisure, order and individual freedom; expected change in the time budget for the family and the tolerance towards ethnic and religious minorities; personal future expectations or hopes in the above fields; achieving equal salaries for women and men with the same skills and experience as well as an equal proportion of men and women in political institutions; personal attitudes towards the above topics; future expectations regarding the European Union: secondary economic power, euro is a stronger currency than the dollar, EU as a leading diplomatic power in the world, EU expansion beyond the borders of the European continent; future most important political issues in the own country; only in EU 27: level of public authorities with the most impact on the own lives (European, national, regional, or local level); adequate consideration of regional or local public authorities in European decision making.

8. Immigration: attitude towards immigrants (people with different ethnic backgrounds enrich the cultural life in the own country, cause of uncertainty and increasing unemployment, immigrants are needed for certain economic sectors, useful to solve the problem of demographic change in Europe, play an important role in the development of understanding and tolerance with the rest of the world, contribution to the taxes by illegal immigrants (Split A) or legal immigrants (Split B) is higher than the benefit from the health and welfare services.

9. EU citizens, and their behavior: payment for professional home care of parents; expectation of a secure long-term care if needed in the own case; assessment of the national social welfare system: provides wide enough coverage, serves as a model for other countries, too expensive for the national society; expectations regarding the national social welfare system in 2030.

10. Pensions: confidence in relation to the own pension; preferred financing model to secure the national pension system (increase in contributions, later pension); future expectations concerning the situation of the own household; assessment of the current and the future national labour market situation (difficulties in finding a good job even with high qualifications, changing jobs is necessary to stay in employment); expected labour market situation in 2030.

11. European post elections survey: own voting behaviour in the European Parliament elections (party preference); time of personal decision to vote or to abstain; reasons for abstaining or voting; crucial political issues for participating in the elections.

12. Attitude towards the European Union and the European Parliament: sufficient information for the own voting decision, trust in the institutions of the EU, identity as an EU citizen, consideration of the needs of the European citizens by the European Parliament, membership of the own country in the EU as a good thing, sense of belonging to the own country and to Europe, importance of the electoral success of a specific candidate or a party for the respondent; political interest.

13. Electoral campaign: reception of the campaign for the European elections; voted in the last national election.

14. Party proximity: party allegiance; left-right self-placement.

Demography: nationality; age; marital status and family situation; age at end of education; sex; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; possession of durable goods; financial difficulties during the last year; self-rated social position (scale); internet use (at home, at work, at school); national provenance.

Additionally encoded was: 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; weighting factor; language of the interview (in Lithuania, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Turkey, and Macedonia).