Eurobarometer 86.3 (2016)

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. Humanitarian aid, 2. Civil protection, 3. EU Citizens’ views on development, cooperation and aid, 4. Chemical safety.<br>Topics: 1. Humanitarian aid: awareness and importance of the EU funding humanitarian aid activities; importance of EU humanitarian aid to fund education for children in crises; approval of the EU initiative to sending volunteers to carry out humanitarian aid actions all over the world; humanitarian aid provided by each member state separately is more efficient than provided by the EU as a whole; preferred information sources on EU humanitarian aid policy; approval of the EU continuing to fund humanitarian aid globally even in times of pressure on public finances; image of the EU.

2. Civil protection: awareness and importance of the EU helping to coordinate disaster response within the EU; approval of the following statements: coordinated EU action in dealing with disasters is more effective than actions by individual countries, own country has sufficient means to deal with major disasters on its own, EU needs civil protection policy as major disasters may have cross-border effects, other EU countries are expected to provide help in case of a disaster in the own country, EU should help countries worldwide in case of disasters; preferred information sources on EU civil protection policy; sufficiency of measures to prevent or prepare for disasters in: own region, own country, EU.

3. EU Citizens’ views on development, cooperation and aid: importance to help people in developing countries; most important challenges in development countries; attitude towards increasing development aid; attitude towards the following statements regarding tackling poverty in development countries: individual can influence the process, should be a main priority of the EU, should be a main priority of the national government, has a positive influence on EU citizens, is in the EU’s own interest, is a moral obligation for the EU, contributes to a more peaceful and equal world, is an effective way to tackle irregular migration, financial assistance is an effective way to tackle poverty; personal engagement in helping developing countries: political engagement, volunteering in an organisation, giving money to an organisation, giving money directly to projects (crowdfunding), ethical choices when shopping, no engagement; assessment of the efficacy of the following actions with regard to reducing poverty in developing countries: individual actions, EU and member states actions; awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals agreed by the international community; main obstacles in preventing successful development in developing countries.

4. Chemical safety: concern about exposure to hazardous chemicals in daily life; self-rated knowledge about potential dangers of chemicals in products of daily life; assessment of products containing chemicals in the own country with regard to health and environmental safety; product safety in the own country compared to ten to fifteen years ago; comparison of the safety of chemicals in products manufactured within and outside the EU; (preferred) responsible body to guarantee safety of chemicals: EU authorities, national authorities, manufacturers, others; sufficient regulation of hazardous chemicals within the EU; preferred sources of information on potential dangers of chemicals in everyday products; obligation of sellers in the own country to provide information on hazardous chemicals in products; awareness and meaning of selected symbols with regard to specific dangers of chemicals; handling of unknown products with one of the aforementioned symbols.

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; internet use (at home, at work, at school); self-reported belonging to the working class, the middle class or the upper class of society; life satisfaction; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; own voice counts in the own country and in the EU; opinion leadership; EU image.

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 (only in BE, EE, ES, FI, LU, LT, MT); nation group; weighting factor.