Eurobarometer 89.3 (2018)

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. Europeans’ perceptions of the Schengen Area, 2. EU consumer habits regarding fishery and aquaculture products, 3. EU citizens and development cooperation.<br>Topics: 1. Europeans’ perceptions of the Schengen Area: awareness of the Schengen Area; membership of the own country in the Schengen Area; knowledge of the exact meaning of Schengen Area; awareness of shared borders of the own country with a country belonging to the Schengen Area; distance of own place of residence from a shared border; awareness of shared borders of the own country with a country not belonging to the Schengen Area; distance of own place of residence from a shared border; frequency of traveling to: other EU countries, countries inside the Schengen Area, countries outside the Schengen Area; assessment of travelling to countries outside the Schengen Area compared to travelling to countries inside the Schengen Area; main reasons for travelling to countries within the Schengen Area; most frequently used means of transportation for travels to other countries within the Schengen Area; attitude towards selected statements on the Schengen Area: is one of the EU’s main achievements, is good for business in the own country, contributes to EU security, has personal advantages for respondent, has advantages for own country; most positive aspects of the Schengen Area; awareness of the reintroduction of border controls since autumn 2015; reasons for the reintroduction of border controls within the Schengen Area: prevent terrorism, discourage people from coming illegally to respondent’s country, none, both, other; personally experienced border controls within the Schengen Area; assessment of the time needed for border crossing; awareness of EU initiatives to secure external borders: European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), Entry / Exit System (EES), Visa Information System (VIS), Schengen Information System (SIS), funding programmes, other, none; attitude towards more EU activities in helping to secure countries outside the EU’s external borders; attitude towards increasing the funding to strengthen the EU’s external borders.

2. EU consumer habits regarding fishery and aquaculture products: frequency of the following activities: consumption of fishery and aquaculture products at home, consumption of fishery and aquaculture products at restaurants or other food outlets, purchase of fishery and aquaculture products; reasons for not consuming fishery and aquaculture products; place of purchase; frequency of buying each of the following types of products: fresh or live products, frozen products, smoked, salted, dried products or products in brine, tinned products, breaded products and ready meals; frequency of purchasing loose and pre-packed products; preferred products: whole products, cleaned products, fillets, depends on type of product; preference regarding the following kinds of products: products from the sea, freshwater products, no preference, ignorance of provenance, depends on type of product; preferences with regard to product origin: own region, own country, EU, outside the EU, ignorance of origin, depends on type of product, no preference; main reasons for consuming fishery and aquaculture products; most important aspects with regard to buying fishery and aquaculture products; trust in selected types of information accompanying fishery and aquaculture products: information that must be shown by law, information certified by independent bodies, information provided by brand or seller; comprehensibility of information; importance of the following information on labels of fresh, frozen, smoked and dried products: name of product and species, wild or farmed product, area of catch or production, fishing gear, previously frozen, expiration date; importance of the following information on labels of tinned or prepared products: species, origin, wild or farmed, fishing gear, location of processing plant; desire for information on additional aspects: date of catch or production, port of discharge, country in which the shipping company is located, ethical information, social information, environmental information, information on fisherman or farmer; most important sources of information on fishery and aquaculture products; attitude towards selected statements: interest in trying new products and species, consumption of products suggested by family or friends, consumption of products suggested in the media, tasting of new products at home, tasting of new products in restaurants or on special occasions, tasting of new products at promotional events, desire to increase consumption if choice and points of sale were more diversified, desire to increase consumption if price was lower.

3. EU citizens and development cooperation: importance to help people in developing countries; most important challenges in developing countries; attitude towards increasing development aid; attitude towards the following statements regarding tackling poverty in developing countries: individual can influence the process, should be a main priority of the EU, should be a main priority of the national government, has a positive influence on EU citizens, is in the EU’s own interest, is a moral obligation for the EU, contributes to a more peaceful and equal world, is an effective way to tackle irregular migration, financial assistance is an effective way to tackle poverty; personal engagement in helping developing countries: political engagement, support of digital campaigns, volunteering, giving money to an organisation, giving money directly to projects (crowdfunding), ethical choices when shopping, no engagement; preferred information sources on development issues; attitude towards the EU development policy focusing on gender equality; preferred areas to focus on: tackling violence against women, support women’s economic empowerment, strengthen women’s political participation, support women’s sexual reproductive health and rights, tackling discriminative attitudes against women, support access to education for women.

Demography: age; nationality; left-right self-placement; marital status; sex; age at end of education; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; financial difficulties during the last year; internet use (at home, at work, at school); self-reported belonging to the working class, the middle class or the upper class of society; life satisfaction; expected development of personal living conditions in the next five years; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; own voice counts in the own country and in the EU; general direction things are going in the own country and in the EU; opinion leadership; EU image.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; number of persons present during the interview; respondent cooperation; size of locality; region; language of the interview (only in BE, EE, ES, FI, LV, LU, MT); nation group; weighting factor.