Eurobarometer 71.1 (Jan-Feb 2009)

Life in the European Union. Voting behaviour and the European Parliament. European elections 2009. Europeans and the economic crisis. Life satisfaction in the European Union. Opinion on the European Union. Climate change. Chemically contaminated products.

Topics: 1. Life in the European Union: frequency of political discussions on national, European, and global matters with friends; life satisfaction; assessment of the present situation of the national, the European, and the global economy, of the personal job situation, the financial situation of the own household, and the national employment situation; expectations regarding improvement or worsening within the next twelve months in the general life situation, the financial situation of the own household, the national employment situation, the personal job situation, the economic situation in the European Union, and in the world; most important national and personal problems; assessment of the own country’s EU membership as a good thing; benefit from the EU membership of the own country; approval of the current development in the own country, in the EU, and in the USA; trust in institutions: national government, national parliament, EU, European Parliament, European Commission, European Central Bank; image of the EU; change in the purchasing power of the own household in the last five years; difficulties paying bills; assessment of the life of future generations as easier or more difficult; influence of the EU on national issues: fighting crime, economic situation, inflation, price stability, fighting unemployment, immigration, environmental protection, healthcare system, combating climate change, research, consumer safety, agriculture, energy supply, food prices, own country’s role in the world, security situation of the own country; most important issues in the EU; assessment of the role of the EU in protecting its citizens from negative effects of globalisation; opinion on the role of the EU: should take a more important role in developing new rules for the global financial market, has sufficient power to defend the European economic interests in the world; prioritized fields in which the EU should take action to overcome the financial crisis; satisfaction with selected aspects of everyday life: housing, residential area, standard of living, state of health, medical services and job opportunities in the local area; assessment of the personal risk of poverty and feeling of social exclusion; assessment of the likelihood to become homeless; trust in media; preferred source of information about politics.

2. Voting behaviour and the European Parliament (only in EU 27): voting behaviour in the last elections to the national parliament; party identification in general and in relation to European issues; reception of information about the European Parliament in the media; image of the European Parliament on the basis of the information received through the media.

Again all: knowledge test about the European Union: direct election of the members of the European Parliament, same number of MEPs per country, sovereignty of the EU Parliament in budget decisions and in legislation; seating plan of the members of the European Parliament according to their nationality or political opinion; preference for increased influence of the European Parliament; strengthening of the role of the European Parliament in the European Union in the last decade; preferred issues and values that should have priority in the European Union.

3. European elections 2009 (only in EU 27): knowledge of the date of the next European elections; interest in the elections; likelihood to vote (scale); main criteria for the own voting decision; reasons for abstention (political inefficacy of the own voice, rejection of the European Union, ignorance about the role of the European Parliament, inadequate consideration of problems that concern the respondent by the European Parliament; insufficient knowledge to vote); preferred issues of the campaign for the European elections.

4. Europeans and the economic crisis: significance of the current and future repercussions of the economic and financial crisis on the global, the European, and the national economy as well as on the personal situation; most competent institution to tackle the economic and financial crisis: national government, European Union, United States, G8, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF); assessment of the current joint or individual action of EU member states in addressing the financial crisis; preference for joint or individual action of member states regarding the protection of EU citizens.

In the eurozone was asked: better protection against the consequences of the financial crisis by maintaining the former national currency; in countries without Euro currency was asked: better protection against the consequences of the financial crisis by adoption of the euro; assessment of an accelerated adoption of the euro.

Again all: mitigation of the adverse impact of the financial crisis through the euro; preferred measures of the European Union in the fight against the financial crisis (scale: more influence of the EU on an international level in the regulation of financial services, control of the most important international financial groups, stronger coordination of economic and financial policies between the member states, supervision by the EU whenever public money is used to rescue financial institutions).

5. Climate change: most serious problems in the world; relevance of the problem of climate change compared to other problems (scale); assessment of the personal knowledge regarding the causes, consequences, and solutions of climate change; opinion on climate change: irreversible process, seriousness has been exaggerated, low impact of carbon dioxide on climate change, positive impact of combating climate change on the European economy, demand for renewable energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; personal action against climate change.

6. Chemical products (only in EU 27): knowledge of foods that are treated with chemicals and pose a risk to the consumer; perception of overall (for people in the own country) and personal risk by exposure to chemicals in the product categories: hair dyes, clothing, sunscreens, and commonly used household cleaning products; concern about the health risk posed by the chemicals in these products; trust in institutions in consumer protection: industry, national government, and the EU; general health risk regardless of the extent of exposure to chemical substances; high health risk even with small amounts of harmful substances; preferred information sources on safety concerning chemicals in consumer products; most trustworthy sources of information; difficulties in understanding the safety instructions on products regarding chemical substances; assessment of the efforts of the industry to point out the risks to consumers; assessment concerning the legal responsibility of producers; knowledge of the meaning of the label ‘dermatologically tested’ on sunscreen lotions; reading and following the instructions for use of sunscreen lotions; suspected health risks of hair dyes; procedure when using hair dyes: reading and following the instructions for use, doing a self-test to check for allergic reactions before applying the colour; suspected health risk from natural textiles (wool, cotton, or linen), synthetic fibers, and fabrics with chemical-specific quality labels; consideration of potential health and environment risks when buying clothes; enumeration of household cleaning products which presumably pose health risks; assessment of the health risk of household cleaning products; kind of health risk or induced diseases; frequency of reading and following the instructions for safe use of cleaning agents.

In Macedonia, Croatia, and Turkey were also asked: membership in the European Union as a good thing; benefits of a future membership for the own country.

In the Turkish Cypriot community were also asked: application of EU laws in the own country as a good thing; advantages of the application of EU law for the Turkish Cypriot community.

Demography: nationality; age; left-right self-placement; marital status; 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, possession of a car, a flat/a house have finished paying for or still paying for); internet use (at home, at work, at school); national provenance of the respondent and his parents (migration background).

Also encoded was: date of interview; time of the beginning of interview; duration of the interview; number of persons present during the interview; respondent cooperation; size of locality; region; weighting factor; interview language (only in Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Turkey and Macedonia).