Eurobarometer 97.4 (2022)

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. Fairness perceptions of the green transition, 2. Intra-EU labour mobility after the pandemic, 3. Fairness, inequality and inter-generational mobility.<br>Topics: 1. Fairness perceptions of the green transition: attitude towards the following statements: feeling of personal responsibility to act to limit climate change, green transition should not leave anyone behind, climate change frightens respondent, confidence that by 2050 sustainable energy as well as products and services will be affordable for everyone; sufficiency of measures taken by the following actors to ensure that green transition is fair: private companies and businesses, local or regional public authorities, national government, EU; attitudes towards selected statements about green transition and the fight against climate change: reinforce personal measures, no need to take action personally if other people in the own country take no action either, own country does not need to take action if other countries take no action either; main reason for personal energy reduction; confidence about each of the following issues with regard to reducing energy use (scale): less personal energy use, readiness of a large number of people in the own country to limit their energy use; personal energy consumption compared with other people in the own country; preferred group of people in the own country to undertake more efforts to reduce their energy consumption; applicability of the following statements on respondent: taken one or more measures in the last five years to make own home more energy efficient, received public funds / subsidies / financial help to make own house more sustainable or energy efficient, own home needs energy efficiency renovation; main obstacles to making own home more energy efficient; attitude towards selected statements about the role of work and jobs in the green transition: own job is contributing to advancing the green transition, being in a job that contributes to advancing the green transition is important to respondent, policies to fight climate change will create more new jobs than they will remove, policies to tackle climate change will create good quality jobs, personal current skills allow respondent to contribute to the green transition; main mode of transport used on a typical day; assessment of public transport in the own area with regard to: availability, affordability, quality (i.e. punctuality, cleanliness, safety, ease of access, comfort); most important aspects with regard to adopting a more sustainable transport mode; time to walk from own home to nearest green space; satisfaction with the quality of the nearest green space; attitude towards the following policies in the own country to limit climate change in a way that it is inclusive and fair and leaves no one behind: increasing own country´s investments in public transport infrastructure, taxing products and services that contribute most to climate change and redistributing revenues to the poorest and most vulnerable households, allocating a quota of energy to each citizen to ensure everyone makes their fair share of effort to tackle climate change, subsidising especially poorer people to help make their homes more energy efficient, encouraging private companies through rules and incentives to reduce their emissions faster / switch to more energy-efficient production methods / adopt more circular and sustainable processes / retrain their workforce as needed; seriousness of each of the following problems: level of energy prices for people in the own country in general, current cost of own household´s energy needs, current cost of fuel for personal transport needs; willingness to pay higher energy prices to speed up green transition.

2. Intra-EU labour mobility after the pandemic: assessment of the movement of people between countries within the EU as a good thing for: individuals, families, labour market, European integration; influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on work-related mobility across countries within the EU: more challenging to move, more awareness of how important labour mobility is for the functioning of the economy, more awareness that free movement is a great opportunity, more skepticism about labour mobility as mobile workers increase the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus, increased possibilities for remote working give people the opportunity to work from abroad without changing the existing job, increased possibilities for remote working without moving abroad will make working in another EU country more attractive, people might be more likely than before the pandemic to consider moving across regions or countries within the EU, other, no influence; personal experience with working in another country: lived and worked in another country, lived in another country without working, worked in another country without living there, education in another country for more than two months, came from abroad and both lives and works in the country of survey, came from abroad and lives in the country of survey without working, works in another country without living there; duration of last stay of living or working abroad; impact of the experience of living or working in another country on personal life: qualified for current job, gained better skills and qualifications, effects beyond professional life, life transition between the countries was difficult, would probably be better off if not had moved, no impact, none of these; type of work done in last stay abroad: seasonal work, traineeship, volunteering, temporary assignment abroad through current employer, permanent work, other type of work; experiences of family members or friends with living or working in another country: living but not working abroad, living and working abroad, living here but commuting; effects of working in another country on an individual in the longer term: gets additional professional experiences, gets better chances to find a job, gets promoted more quickly, experience abroad is not recognised in the own country, has no impact on the career prospects, creates difficulties for re-entry to the national labour market, other, none of these; considerations to work abroad; influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on personal plans of working abroad: postponed plans, less certainty about personal intentions, abandoned plans, no impact, no intention to work abroad; planned point in time to take up work abroad; kind of employment interested in: seasonal work, traineeship, volunteering, temporary assignment abroad through current employer, permanent work, other type of work; reasons for not being interested in working abroad; preferred countries; reasons for preferring these countries; impact of Brexit on personal choice of countries; preferred duration of working abroad; preferred channels to find a job: public employment service, private employment service, dedicated online job search tools, online social networks, newspaper advertisements, personal contacts, current employer, direct contact with an employer abroad, another way; income needed abroad compared to current income; preferred way of working abroad: remote from the place of residence, daily commuting, commuting at least once a week, commuting less often than once a week, mix of commuting and remote work, living there, no intention to work abroad; meaning of fair mobility with regard to the EU objective ‘Fair labour mobility in the EU´: right to move and work within the EU without having to ask for a work permit, full recognition of professional qualifications throughout the EU, acquirement of pension rights regardless of the country where a person works, common standard of health insurance at EU level, same rights and obligations for mobile and for local workers, independent bodies to inform mobile workers about their rights and obligations, more protection of local workers, looking at the needs of enterprises before promoting mobility, equal pay for equal work at the same workplace, other; awareness of selected bodies and tools to support fair labour mobility: European Labour Authority (ELA), EURES and EURES website, Free Movement of Workers bodies, European Health Insurance Card, none of these.

3. Fairness, inequality and inter-generational mobility: attitude towards the following statements: most things that happen in personal life are fair, people get what they deserve in the own country, equal opportunities in own country for getting ahead; personal characteristics of respondent: assumes that people have only the best intentions, always parks car in authorized parking spots, always pays for streamed or downloaded music or movies; importance of each of the following factors for getting ahead in life: coming from a wealthy family, good education, hard work, sex; attitude towards the following statements on incomes in the own country: differences are too great, government should take measures to reduce differences, EU institutions should support national government to reduce differences in income levels, views of people in the own country are taken into account when designing or reforming public benefits programmes and services; preferred amount of money earned by taxes and social security contributions to be spent by national government on selected areas compared to current expenditure: family policies, education, unemployment support, income support, health, pensions, long-term care, culture, housing; preferred way to finance additional costs: not generate additional costs, reduce budget of other public programmes to avoid higher efforts of households, distribute equally among households, distribute proportionally to household income, mainly ask of wealthy households, increase budget deficit to avoid higher efforts of households; highest level of education of respondent’s: mother, father, maternal grandfather, paternal grandfather, closest brother in age, closest sister in age; care by grandparents at the age of 8: maternal, paternal; main care during daily hours at the age of 2 and 4 by: nursery / preschool, nanny / babysitter, mother, father, maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, friends; access to the following as a child: medical check-ups on a regular basis, healthy food on a daily basis, adequate housing, books to read at home, safe and stimulating learning environment at school, family-owned second home or summer house, none of these; personal experiences as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic: been made redundant or lost job, job income was reduced, working hours were reduced, been furloughed or placed in a job retention scheme, been forced to take unpaid leave or holiday, not been able to pay a usual expense, physical or mental health deteriorated, working conditions improved, none of these; financial support received as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic: unemployment benefits, wage support, paid sick leave or paid care leave, state aid to businesses, other support from public services to help with household expenses, deferral / reduction or cancellation of tax / bill / mortgage / loan or debt payments, financial support from NGOs or charities, financial support from relatives or friends, none of these; satisfaction with the measures to address socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic taken by: national government, EU institutions; household income; estimated proportion of households with lower income; perceived placement on social ladder compared to reality; attitude towards selected statements: important task for government to tax the rich to support the poor, large differences in incomes are acceptable to reward talent and effort, people who support left / right parties have different views.

Demography: age; nationality; employment status; occupation; professional position; marital status; age at end of education; highest completed level of full time education; sex; type of community; household composition and household size; financial difficulties during the last year; internet use (at home, at work, at school); EU image; possession of a car and engine type; parents’ occupation; housing situation; language skills; person living with at the age of 8.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; mode of interview; 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; language of the interview; region; weighting factor.