Eurobarometer 47.0 (1997)

Attitude to the EU. Environmental protection and consumer protection.Questions on the EURO, finance market, ´Fair Trade´ products,information society. Interest in information on Germany.Topics: 1. Nationality (multiple response possible); interest inpolitics; personal opinion leadership; judgement on the membership ofthe country in the EU; advantageousness of this membership at the timeof interview and in future; necessity of a common European currency.2. Importance of a common European drug, asylum and foreign policy;assessment of the most useful second language besides one´s own nativelanguage; trust in the people of individual member countries of the EUas well as in the Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Russians and Americans;importance of cooperation between France and Germany; interest ininformation about Germany and sources of information used for this;assessment of the significance of Chancellor Helmut Kohl for Europeanintegration.3. Expected quality changes in foods, such as e.g. fresh products,products in cans, frozen foods and prepared products or convenienceproducts; assessment of the credibility of consumer informationprovided by private and government organizations as well as media;necessity of environmental protection; preference for economic growthor environmental protection; most important environmental problems andjudgement on this regarding solution recommendations; knowledge ofEuropean initiatives on consumer protection, such as e.g. contract law,safety with toys, misleading advertising, price marking, identificationof materials contained; judgement on the effects of these initiativeson consumer protection; most important consumer problems; assessment ofthe school as sensible preparation for life as well as for conduct asconsumer; judgement on local, national and European institutions intheir role regarding education of consumers; judgement on EU measuresto improve safety of products; judgement on the safety of selectedproducts and services such as medications, cosmetics, toys, food, motorvehicles, public places, hotels, sporting events, airplanes,restaurants and personal impact; judgement on the perception of theproblem of safety of products and services through the media andschools; expectation of comparable safety standards and productstandards in traveling to other European countries; judgement on thequality of goods produced by government companies; attitude toprivatization of government supply and monopoly companies; expectedchanges from privatization and deregulation in the areas telephone,mail, electricity supply, gas supply, water supply, air travel andtrains regarding price reduction, quality improvement, supplier varietyand protection of consumer interests; expected effects from increasedcompetition; rights of the citizen in access to selected governmentservices; judgement on the quality of products from Central and EasternEurope; attitude to expansion of the security standard of products toalso include those exported from the EU; judgements on thepossibilities of price comparison with products and services anddesignation of products and areas in which more clarity in product andprice information is desired, such as e.g. housing system, publichealth system, finance system, repairs and e.g. travel agencies;product and service areas in which comparison of original pricing couldachieve a price reduction; product areas and service areas in whichforeign suppliers are also of interest.4. Desire for information regarding the progress of the commonEuropean currency; expected improvement in international competitiveability and political power of the EU durch the EURO; country, financeinstitutions, companies or consumers as profiting from the commoncurrency; expected adjustment time for the new currency; preference fora dual marking of prices in stores and bank account statements; desirefor a longer transfer time; difficulties in dealing with foreigncurrencies; judgement on national laws regarding consumer protection,data protection, bank and insurance law and the safety of fundstransfers; judgement on the counseling and provision of credit by banksand insurance companies; judgement on security aspects with telephonebanking and the Internet; most important obstacles in the use offinancial services in the EU; preferred manner of payment with largerpurchases in one´s own country and in other EU member countries; mostimportant reasons for the preferred manner of payment; use of modernmeans of payment with PIN code up to now; reasons against use of suchmeans of payment; attitude to use of smart card at home and abroad;demand for more consumer protection with new technologies; use oftechnologies of the information society such satellite program, pay TV,teletext, Minitel, video recorder, computer, CD-ROM, fax, modem, mobiletelephone, the Internet, pager and cable TV in the private as well asoccupational area; personal interest in use of these new technologies.Knowledge and purchase of ´Fair Trade´ products; products purchased andplace; interest in purchase of ´Fair Trade´ bananas; preferred purchaseplace for such products; accepted price increase for ´Fair Trade´products in percent; reasons for not purchasing ´Fair Trade´ products;currently preferred brand of bananas; weekly consumption of bananas;self-classification on a left-right continuum. Also encoded was: dateof interview; time of start of interview; length of interview; numberof persons present during interview; willingness of respondent tocooperate; possession of a telephone.