Eurobarometer 65.1 (Feb-Mar 2006)

The future of Europe. Attitude towards the European Single Market and transborder purchases. Consumer protection. Family planning.

Topics: 1. Questions regarding Europe: frequency of own opinion leadership; time of last internet use; happy with the family life, with the current occupation, and with living in the own country; financial difficulties at the end of the month; associations with the words “European Union”; visit to another EU country; reading books, magazines, and newspapers in a foreign language as well as contact with other EU citizens in the last year; frequency of political discussions with friends on national and European matters; assessment of the EU membership of the own country as a good thing; preference for more or less decision-making at European level with regard to: the fight against unemployment, the protection of social rights, ensuring economic growth, the fight against organised crime and terrorism, ensuring food safety, the protection of the environment, the prevention of major health issues, equal treatment of men and women, the protection of agriculture, the global promotion of democracy and peace, cooperation in research and innovation, ensuring continuous energy provision; image of the European Union as modern, democratic, protective, inefficient, and technocratic; assessment of the progress in the economic and political unification of Europe, and in the cultural cooperation; helpful issues for the future of Europe: common language, well defined external EU borders, introduction of the euro in all EU countries, comparable living standards, common army and constitution; most positive result of the European unification (peace among the member states, free movement of persons, services, and goods, the euro, student exchange programmes such as ERASMUS, common agricultural policy); issue competence of the European Union (scale: fight against unemployment, protection of social and human rights, ensuring economic growth, fight against organised crime and terrorism, food safety, environmental protection, prevention of major health issues, equal treatment of men and women, protection of agriculture, helping poor people in the world, worldwide promotion of democracy and peace, cooperation in research and innovation, ensuring energy provision); assessment of the direction of development in the own country and in the European Union; attitude towards the harmonisation of the social welfare systems within the EU; assessment of the economic development in the own country without the introduction of the euro (vulnerability of the national currency on foreign exchange markets, higher inflation, more competitive economy); opinion on globalisation (is improving opportunities for national companies or is a threat to employment and companies); attitude towards the EU enlargement (scale: increases problems on the national job market, price reduction of many products, improves the influence of the EU in the world); feeling towards further EU enlargement; aspects that strengthen the feeling about being a European citizen; preferred measures of political participation; willingness to participate in European wide referenda or petitions (scale); knowledge test on the European Union; interest in national and European affairs.

2. Transborder purchases: purchase of goods or services via the internet, by phone, by post, or from a sales representative from a seller or provider located in the own country, in another EU member state, or outside the EU; shopping trip to another EU country or purchasing products or services during a holiday or business trip in the last 12 months; total value of these goods or services (classified); problems with purchases via the internet, by phone, by post, or from a sales representative; return of a product or cancelling of a contract within the cooling-off period; purchase of or sign up to selected financial services in the last year; purchase of these financial services via the internet, by phone, or by post from a seller or provider located in the own country, in another EU member state, or outside the EU; problems related to the purchase of financial services; main barriers to purchasing financial services from a provider located in another EU country compared with the conditions in the own country; frequency of the perception of advertisements for the purchase directly from providers located in other EU countries; experience with advertisements: received unsolicited advertising, noticed misleading, deceptive or fraudulent advertisements, responded to an advertisement which has been found to be misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent; attitude towards a ban of unsolicited advertisements; coercion to purchase a good or to sign up to a contract; use of the right to ask for replacement, repair, price reduction, or to cancel a contract in the last year; unfair terms in standard consumer contracts or terms and conditions; frequency of price comparisons based on the price per kilo or per litre; problems with the purchase of a timeshare; purchase of a package holiday; sufficient information given by the package holiday operator prior to travel, holiday exactly as offered by the operator; interest in transborder purchases (scale); confidence regarding purchases from providers located in other EU countries compared to purchases from providers in the own country; expected problems from purchases from sellers located in other EU countries (scale: problems with complaints, increased risk of becoming a victim of fraud, delivery problems, return during the cooling-off period of 14 days, safety of goods or services, disregarding of consumer protection laws, refused delivery due to the buyer living in another country); own experience with complaints; satisfaction with the management of the complaint by the seller and actions taken in the case of inadequately treated complaints; preferred ways of consumer protection; attitude towards the national consumer protection (scale); difficulties understanding information on the safety of goods or services; products with the most inadequate safety information; preferred kind of safety information (text or symbols).

3. Family: preferred measures to reduce potential shortages in the work force; ideal number of children for a family in general and for the respondent; desired and actual number of children as well as reasons for not having the number of children wanted; age at the birth of the first child; retrospective assessment of the timing of the first child; number of children intended to have in the next three years; important decision criteria for or against a child (scale: financial situation, housing conditions, working situation and health of mother and father, support from the partner, availability of childcare provision, parental leave, costs of children); ideal age of a woman (Split A) or a man (Split B) for the first child and age limit for no longer having children; orientation of the own number of children according to the family of origin or to friends and relatives; future security of personal household; expected future financial situation of the household; attitude towards working mothers and fathers (scale gender role: building a solid relationship with the children, pre-school child suffers from the employment of the mother, family life suffers from a full time employment of the mother or the work orientation of the father, contribution of both parents to the household income, woman should take care of household and children while the man goes out to work).

4. European Single Market: perceived facilitation in traveling from one EU country to another compared to ten years ago (EU15) respectively compared to the period prior to the country’s accession to the EU (NMS10); better choice of products from other EU member states in the national shops and supermarkets compared to ten years ago (EU15) respectively compared to the period prior to the country’s accession to the EU (NMS10); impact of the European Single Market on range, prices, and quality of products and services; assessment of the increased competition; knowledge of consumer rights within the European Single Market; knowledge test on labour and other contractual provisions of the internal market (e.g. obtaining a mortgage in another member state, warranty for products bought in another member state); observation of price differences for the same products or services between EU member states; willingness to travel or already undertaken trips to another EU member state due to better offers; attitude towards the purchase of better or cheaper products or services from another EU country via the internet and potential impediments to do so; reasons against studying, working, or retiring in another member state of the EU; interest in studying, working, retiring, taking out an insurance policy, or obtaining a mortgage in another member state; reasons against taking out an insurance policy or obtaining a mortgage in another EU country; preferred body of assistance in questions regarding working issues in another EU member state; knowledge of selected services of the European Commission to help citizens regarding their rights in the European Single Market; assessment of selected measures established by the European Single Market (free choice to work or to study in any of the EU member states, marketing of products under the same conditions); prospects for the European Single Market (improved ways to combat unemployment through job changes within the EU, economic growth in the EU compared to the rest of the world, improved consumer protection in the EU).

Demography: nationality; age; left-right self-placement; marital status; age at end of education; sex; professional position; working hours per week; type of community; household composition and household size; national provenance of mother and father (immigration background); own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; frequency of church attendance; possession of durable goods (entertainment electronics, internet connection; possession of a car, a flat/a house have finished paying for or still paying for).

Also encoded was: date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; persons present during the interview; willingness to cooperate; interview language; size of locality; region; weighting factor, language of the interview (only in LU, BE, ES, FI, EE, LV and MT).