Eurobarometer 76.1 (2011)

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. Economic and financial crisis, 2. European Parliament energy policy, 3. Financial services, 4. Corruption, 5. Attitudes towards development aid, 6. Gender equality: women in decision-making positions.<br>Topics: 1. Economic and financial crisis: impact of the crisis on the world economy, the European economy, the national economy and on respondent`s personal situation; job loss in social environment (personal, relative, colleague, acquaintance) as a direct consequence of the crisis; the euro has mitigated the negative effects of the crisis; expected period for returning to national growth; preferred crisis management of the own country and of the various EU Member States: individually or coordinated with the other EU countries; attitude towards financial help to another EU Member State facing difficulties and reasons for this attitude; attitude towards consultations between European institutions and automatic application of escalating financial penalties if state does not comply with rules; a share of the public debt of the EU Member States, should be held jointly; knowledge of Eurobonds; approval to the creation of Eurobonds; knowledge of credit rating agencies; attitude towards credit rating agencies (scale).

2. European Parliament energy policy: most important issue in an increased energy cooperation between the EU member states.

3. Financial services: kind of purchased financial products and services (current bank account, mortgage, credit card, personal loan, shares of bonds, investment fund, life insurance and other insurance products); reason for not having a bank account; purchase of financial products and services in another EU Member State; financial products purchased within the last five years; type of acquisition of these products (directly from the provider or through an intermediary or advisor); information by the seller about the payment of a commission, bonus or additional remuneration; written information about the characteristics of the product; comparison of several different products before the final decision; received recommendations for a specific suitable product; willingness to purchase financial products from another EU Member State; main concerns about purchasing financial products and services from another EU Member State; change of provider concerning current account, mortgage, credit card or personal loan; problems with a financial product or service; complaint about these problems, contact for such complaints; way of purchasing goods or services from outside; method of payment.

4. Corruption: attitude towards corruption (scale); change of the level of national corruption in the last years; personally informed about the change of national corruption; widespread of corruption in country; own experiences with bribery (expectation of another person to pay a bribe for his or her services); reasons for national corruption; effort to fight against corruption in one´s country; responsibility for preventing and fighting against corruption; institution the respondent trusts most to complain about a corruption case.

5. Attitudes towards development aid: importance of development aid; parts of the world which are most in need of development aid; attitude towards increasing the level of EU-development aid; EU-policy area with the biggest impact on developing countries; EU should require developing countries to follow certain rules as a condition for receiving EU development aid; preferred cooperation partner to increase the impact of EU development aid; best way to improve EU effectiveness in terms of development aid; source of information on issues related to development policy; attitude towards the linking of EU development aid to other European objectives; willingness to pay higher prices for products from developing countries.

6. Gender equality / women in decision-making positions: attitudes towards women in decision-making positions (scale); preferred method for maintaining a balanced gender ratio in enterprises; attitude towards legal measures to ensure a gender balance; preferred quota system; expected time for implementation of balanced gender equality in supervisory boards; preferred sanction for non-compliance; preferred decision-makers about gender relations in enterprises at the national or European level.

Demography: nationality, age, self-assessment on a left-right continuum, marital status and family situation; age at completion of education, sex, profession, professional position, degree of urbanization, number of persons aged 15 in the household; number of children under 10 years old and from 10 to 14 years in the household; fixed telephone or mobile phone in the household; possession of durable goods (home entertainment media, internet, car ownership, residential property); financial difficulties last year, self-assessment of social class; internet usage (at home, at workplace, at school).

Also encoded was: date of the interview, time of beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; number of persons present during the interview; cooperation of the respondent; city size; region; weighting factor; language of interview (not in all countries).