Eurobarometer 74.2 (2010)

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 all question modules are in the standard Eurobarometer context: 1. Standard EU and trend questions, 2. Europe 2020, 3. Financial and economic crisis, 4. Information on European political matters.<br>Topics: 1. Attitudes towards the EU (standard EU and trend questions): general life satisfaction; frequency of discussions about the country´s politics, European politics and local political affairs; personal opinion leadership; assessment of the national, the European economy and the world economy; evaluation of personal professional and financial situation of the household; assessment of the labor market situation in the own country and the expectations for the future based on the personal life situation, the economic situation of the country, the financial situation of the household, the labor market situation of the country, the personal job situation, the economic situation in the EU and the world economy; most important problems of the country and personal impact of these problems; most important problems in the European Union; favorability of the country´s membership in the EU; development of the country and the European Union in the right direction; confidence in institutions, political parties, on radio, television, Internet, justice, police, military, religious institutions, trade unions, large companies, the state government, the country´s parliament, the European Union, the United Nations and in small enterprises; positive or negative image of the EU; values represented by the EU; associations with the term European Union; awareness of european institutions such as the European Parliament, European Commission, Council of the European Union, European Central Bank and assessment of trust in these institutions; knowledge test on the European Union (the number of Member States, direct election of members of the European Parliament, Switzerland is a member of the EU); attitude towards the further development of the EU (support for monetary union, common foreign policy, EU enlargement, common defense policy); preferred countries for the EU enlargement; preferred areas for future development of the EU; preferred decision-making level (country or EU) concerning crime, taxes, unemployment, terrorism, foreign policy, immigration, education, pensions, environmental protection, health, agriculture, consumer protection, research, support of economically weak regions, energy, transport, the fight against inflation, economic growth, combating public debt, reforms of the financial sector; knowledge how the EU works; perceived future of the European Union; importance of political and social value ranges for the respondent and their representation in the European Union.

2. Europe 2020: evaluation of the accessibility of the objectives of the Europe 2020 program (full employment, increased spending ion research and development, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the share of renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, increase the graduation rate and the rate of high school graduates; reducing the poverty rate); attitude towards reinforcing innovation by research funding; preferred measures for the education and employment of young people; preferred main focuses of the EU in the following areas: internet, energy, industry, jobs and professional qualifications, combating poverty; assessment whether the EU has set the right priorities in these areas.

3. Financial and economic crisis: height of the crisis has passed; assessment of the current situation of the household; most important actor to tackle the economic and financial crisis; preferred initiatives to improve the performance of the EU economy; attitude towards the reform of the economic system (scale: promoting reforms to relieve future generations, future capability of the country through reforms, demand for increased cooperation among the EU countries, willingness to lower standards of living to secure the future of subsequent generations, measures to reduce the public deficit are priority (Split A) or not priority (Split B), call for the creation of jobs by increasing public deficits); evaluation of measures to overcome the financial crisis (scale: regulation of financial services, control of large financial groups, coordination of the economic policies of the EU Member States, EU control at the recovery of banks by public funds and increased coordination of fiscal policies between countries in the euro zone); attitude towards a reform of global financial markets (scale: stricter rules against tax evasion and tax havens, tax on bank profits, taxes on financial transactions, regulation of salaries in the financial sector and in Bonus payments, monitoring of hedge funds and increasing the transparency of financial markets); preferred decision level for the regulation of financial markets (national, international); demand for rules for the global control of financial markets (Split A) versus the EU should participate less in the development of these rules(Split B); the EU has sufficient power to defend its economic interests on the world market; assessment of the activities of the European Union, the country´s government and the United States in combating the economic crisis.

4. Information on European political matters: assessment of the information level of most people in the country concerning the EU and self-perceived information level; media use and frequency of reception of television, radio, press, internet and social networks; preferred source of information about European political affairs; assessment of adequate dissemination of information through the media; assessment of the tendency of the presentation of the EU in the media; attitude towards social networks (scale: modern way of political Information gathering, trustworthiness of information on the social networks, possibility of awakening political interest by the networks).

Demography: nationality; age; left-right self-placement; marital status and family situation; age at end of education; sex; 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; financial difficulties during the last year; self-rated social position (scale); internet use (at home, at work, at school); national provenance of the respondent; migration of parents within and outside the EU.

Also encoded was: date of interview; beginning of interview; duration of interview; persons present during the interview; willingness to cooperate; language of interview; city size; region; country; weighting factor.