Eurobarometer 51.0 (1999)

The main focus topics are:1. Political attitudes and questions on the European Union.2. European Parliament.3. Attitude to older people and questions on provision for old age.4. Violence against children and young people.5. Domestic violence against women.Topics:1. political attitudes and questions on the European Union:citizenship;interest in politics;personal opinion leadership;self-assessment of extent to which informed about the EU;media use;trust in media, the judiciary, the police, military, church, trade unions,parties, large concerns, charitable organizations as well as nationaland supranational institutions;sources of information used or information channels about the EU andpreferred means of information about the EU;possession of communication and media facilities and access;judgement on membership of the country in the EU;advantageousness of this membership;satisfaction with democracy at state level as well as in Europe;feeling of affiliation with village/city, region, country, Europe;knowledge, significance and trust in selected European institutions;self-assessment of extent to which informed about the Euro;sources of information used or information channels about the Euro;preferred information content of an information campaign about the Euro;attitude to a common European currency, foreign policy and defense policy;attitude to a Europeaen Central Bank independent from the member countriesor responsible to the European Parliament;attitude to responsibility of the EU for mattersthat cannot effectively be solved on national, regional and local level;attitude to support of the president and the membersof the European Commission by a majority of the European Parliament;attitude to school instruction about the work of European institutions;preference for national or European decision-making power inselected policy areas;desired priorities in EU policies, such as e.g. accepting new member countries,fight against poverty, environmental protection, consumer protection,fight against unemployment, reform of EU institutions, securing peace andprotection of personality laws and democratic principles in Europe;fears in connection with the merger of nations into a united Europe;preferred new EU member countries;criteria for accepting countries;assessment of the area with the largest EU budget.2. European Parliament:perception of reporting about the European Parliament in the media;the significance of the European Parliament for the EU;desire for greater significance of the European Parliament;election participation at the last European Election andintent to vote in the coming election for the European Parliament;assessment of representation of interests of European citizensby the European Parliament;most important interests that should be represented by the European Parliament.3. Attitude to older people and questions on provision for old age:assumed development of pension age and pension payments;expected increase in the welfare state with increased support of older people;expected shift from governmental to more private pension programs;attitude to allowing paid work by retirees;attitude to legal protection against age discrimination;preference for care in a nursing homeor people in need of care remaining in their domestic surroundings;looking after members of the family or friends in need of care andinformation on age and degree of relationship;person most able to provide nursing care;looking forward to one's own retirement;preference for main proportion of pension payments from governmental sources,from employee contributions or from private provision for old age.5. Violence against children and young people:knowledge of violence against children and young people andsources of information;subjective understanding of violence and bodily harm against children (scale);assumed normality of violence against children;assumed perpetrator and reasons for violence against children;acceptance of physical punishment of children;attitude to use of selected institutions, organizationsor persons to protect children;assessment of the effectiveness of laws in one's country regardingprevention of sexual and other forms of violence against children andregarding punishment of adults for sexual violence against children;assessment of the usefulness of various possibilities to combatviolence against children;familiarity of the measures recommended by the EUto combat violence against children;attitude to participation of the EU in combating violence against children.4. Domestic violence against women:knowledge of violence against women and sources of information;assumed normality of violence against women;subjective understanding of violence and of bodily injury against women (scale);assumed reasons for violence against women;acceptance of violence against women;attitude to use of selected institutions, organizations or personsto protect against violence against women;knowledge of legal requirements about prevention ofdomestic violence against women, social support of victims of domestic violence,legal support of victims as well as punishment and rehabilitation of offenders;assessment of usefulness of various possibilities to combatdomestic violence against women;familiarity of the measures recommended by the EUto combat domestic violence against women;attitude to participation of the EU in combatingdomestic violence against women;women in one's circle of friends who were victims of domestic violence;perpetrators of domestic violence against women in one's circle of friends.The following questions were posed only in Germany:knowledge and significance of the presidency of Germanyin the council of ministers of the EU.Demography:self-classification on a left-right continuum;marital status;age at conclusion of school or university;sex;age;number of children and adults in household;household size;current occupational position;head of household;primary earner in household and his occupation;household income.Also encoded was:date of interview;time of start of interview;interview length;number of persons present during interview;willingness of respondent to cooperate;city size;region;ZIP (postal) code;telephone possession;interview language.