Eurobarometer 89.2 (2018)

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. One year to go to the European elections 2019.<br>Topics: 1. One year to go to the European elections 2019: level of interest in European affairs; image of the European Parliament; desired importance of the role of the European Parliament; 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; awareness of the date of the next European Parliament elections in the own country; interest in the next European elections; intention to vote in the next European elections; preferred issues to be emphasized in the electoral campaign for the next European Parliament elections; increased readiness to vote in the European elections in order to influence the election of the president of the European Commission; attitude towards selected statements with regard to electing the president of the European Commission depending on the results of the European Parliament elections: is a significant progress for democracy within the EU, brings more transparency in the process of electing the president of the European Commission, gives more legitimacy to the European Commission, has no impact, prevents member states from choosing best candidate, only useful if accompanied by debates on European issues; importance to vote in European and in national elections; difficulty to vote in European and in national elections; main reasons for people to vote or not to vote in European elections; personal voting behaviour in the last elections on all levels in recent years; reasons for not voting; time of decision to vote or not to vote in a national election; assessment of the own country’s membership in the EU as a good thing; benefits from the EU membership; satisfaction with the democracy in the own country and in the EU; attitude towards the following statements on new political parties and movements: threat to democracy, find new solutions, not innovative, can bring real change; preference for enhancing common European policy in important areas on instigation of only some member states or by all of them (two speed Europe); preference for national or for joint action on EU level to represent own country’s interests best with regard to: election of Donald Trump, increasing influence of Russia, increasing influence of China, Brexit, growing instability in the Arab-Muslim world.

Demography: nationality; age; left-right self-placement; marital status; sex; age at end of education; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; 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; expected development of personal living conditions in the next five years; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; own voice counts in the own country and in the EU; own country’s voice counts in the EU; general direction things are going 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; nation group; weighting factor.