Finnish EU Attitudes Autumn 1993

The survey charted Finnish expectations of what kind of impact the EU membership would have on Finland. It also contains the citizens' estimates of both Finnish influence as a member of the Union and issues Finland should be able to influence in the European Union. The abbreviation EC, European Community, was still used in this data because the Maastricht Treaty was not yet in force when the data were compiled. The respondents were first asked what their attitude towards Finland's potential membership in the EU was, and to what extent their attitude was dependent on the so-called edge conditions. Familiarity with Finnish EU membership and European integration issues was surveyed. The respondents were asked whether they thought they would vote in the referendum on membership, and whether Finland was likely to join the EU. In addition, the respondents were asked to estimate what kind of impact the EU membership would have on living conditions in Finland, standard of living, national economy, export, business life, interest level, wage level, price and quality of food, arts and culture, education, social security, health services, environment, equality, security policy, democracy, crime, employment, the position of some population groups, etc. The respondents were also asked to what extent they agreed with a number of statements relating to the potential EU membership, its impact on Finland, the need for integration, and who should decide about the membership and when. The survey carried a number of characterisations of the EU, and the respondents were asked whether the characterisations were consistent with their own views (e.g. EU consolidates peace in Europe, takes environmental protection seriously). The respondents were asked how important it was to them that Finland attained certain negotiation goals (e.g. in agricultural policy, hunting and fishing issues) in the membership negotiations. Background variables included the respondent's gender, age group, size of municipality of residence, province of residence, vocational education, industry of employment, occupational group, type of employer, trade union membership, and which party R would vote for if the parliamentary elections were held at that time.