Eurobarometer 85.1 (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. Europeans in 2016, 2. Antimicrobial resistance, 3. Financial products and services, 4. Online Platforms.<br>Topics: 1. Europeans in 2016: things that bring citizens of different EU member states together are more important than things that separate; appropriateness of current EU actions and preferred level of intervention in the fields of: economic policy, foreign policy, fight against unemployment, health and social security, migration, environmental protection, fight against terrorism, security and defence policy, equal treatment of men and women, agriculture, promotion of democracy and peace in the world, energy supply and security, fight against tax fraud, protection of external borders, industrial policy; assessment of the risk of a terrorist attack in the own country; most effective level to combat terrorism in the own country: regional or local, national, European, global, all together; most urgent EU measures to fight terrorism; most urgent EU measures to fight radicalisation and the recruitment of EU citizens by terrorist organisations; awareness of the mutual defence clause between EU member states; assessment of the of the mutual defence clause.

2. Antimicrobial resistance: use of oral antibiotics in the last twelve months; source of last course of antibiotics used: medical prescription, medical practitioner, some left from a previous course, without prescription from a pharmacy, without prescription from elsewhere; reasons for taking last course of antibiotics: pneumonia, bronchitis, rhinopharyngitis, flu, cold, sore throat, cough, fever, headache, diarrhea, urinary tract infection, skin or wound infection; knowledge test on antibiotics: kill viruses, effective against cold or flu, unnecessary use makes them become ineffective, frequency of side-effects; knowledge of the time when to stop a course of treatment; information about not taking antibiotics unnecessarily in the last twelve months; source of the information; change of own point of view due to information; planned future use of antibiotics due to information; additional information desired on the following aspects of antibiotics: resistance, use, medical conditions for the use, prescription, links between the health of humans, animals, and the environment; preferred sources for trustworthy information on antibiotics; preferred level of action to tackle the resistance to antibiotics: individual or family, regional, local, national, European, global, all levels together; approval of farm animals being treated with antibiotics in case of this being the most appropriate treatment; awareness of the interdiction to use antibiotics in farm animals to stimulate growth within the EU.

3. Financial products and services: possession of the following financial products and services: current bank account, savings account, mortgage loan, credit card, personal loan, shares or bonds, investment fund, life insurance, car insurance, private health insurance; products purchased in another EU member state; main concerns about purchasing financial products and services in other EU member states; change of provider of the aforementioned products and services in the last five years and reasons for not changing; transactions in or to another EU member state with a currency other than the one in respondent’s country in the last twelve months; approval of the following statements regarding these transactions: transparent information on fees charged, fees charged are too high.

4. Online Platforms: frequency of the following online activities: use of search engines, use of online social networks, use of online marketplaces; attitudes towards selected statements on search engines: respondent usually finds what he is looking for when searching online, trust that results provided are the most relevant ones, sponsored results can clearly be identified, considerations to change search engine if results are not useful; degree of awareness of terms and conditions of online platforms; attitudes towards the following statements on search results on online platforms: ranking of search results has effect on consumer behaviour, ranking of results is expected to correspond to respondent’s interest, platforms should be able to change ranking of results according to own commercial interests; attitudes towards selected statements on the collection and the use of personal data by online platforms: awareness that internet experience depends on user’s prior activities, concern about the data collected, display of search results on the basis of data collection of user behaviour should be regulated by public authorities; feeling of comfort or discomfort with regard to the use of information of online activity and personal data of users to tailor advertisements or content in the following platforms: search engines, online social networks, online marketplaces; assessment of the reliability of review rankings.

Demography: nationality; age; age at end of education; internet use (at home, at work, at school); left-right self-placement; marital status; sex; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; 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-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; general direction things are going in the own country and in the EU; 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; nation group; weighting factor.