Eurobarometer 66.1 (Sep-Oct 2006)

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 (standard & special modules) are included: 1. European values and societal issues (in the context of the standard module), 2. Mobile phone use (roaming), 3. Farm animal welfare.

Topics: 1. European values and societal issues (in the context of the standard module): frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European, and local level; opinion leadership; life satisfaction; expectations for the next twelve months regarding: personal life in general, national economic situation, financial situation of the own household, national employment situation, personal job situation; general direction things are going in the own country and in the EU; trust in selected institutions: written press, radio, television, internet, national legal system, police, army, religious institutions, trade unions, political parties, national government, national parliament, European Union, United Nations, consumer associations; assessment of the own country’s membership in the EU as a good thing; benefits from the EU membership; impact of the own country’s EU membership on selected areas in the own country: security, economy, standard of living, agriculture, influence in the world, employment; EU image; attitude towards the development towards a European political union; attitude towards selected statements: own voice counts in the EU, respondent understands how the EU works, feeling of being involved in European affairs; assessment of the current speed of building Europe and preferred speed; self-rated knowledge about the European Union, its policies and institutions; frequency of looking for information on the European Union, its policies and institutions; ease of finding information on the European Union, its policies and institutions; awareness of the right to request access to non-published documents of EU institutions; awareness of and trust in selected institutions of the European Union: European Parliament, European Commission, Council of the European Union, Court of Justice of the European Communities, European Ombudsman, European Central Bank, European Court of Auditors, Committee of the Regions of the European Union, Economic and Social Committee of the European Union; knowledge test on the EU: number of member states, direct election of European Parliament members by the citizens of each member state, change in the presidency of the Council of the European Union every six months; recent reception of media reports on the presidency of Finland; importance of the current presidency of Finland; recent reception of media reports on the upcoming presidency of Germany; importance of the upcoming presidency of Germany; preferred means of information of the national government on the EU; policy areas respondent desires additional information on; most important problems in the own country; preferred level of decision making in the fields of: fight against crime, taxation, fight against unemployment, fight against terrorism, defence and foreign affairs, immigration, education system, pensions, environmental protection, health and social welfare, agriculture and fisheries, consumer protection, scientific and technological research, support for regions facing economic difficulties, energy, competition; attitude towards the following issues: European economic and monetary union with one single currency, common foreign policy of all member states, common defence and security policy, further enlargement, constitution for the EU, different speed of building Europe in the member states; most important objectives of the European Union; preferred level of decision making in the field of European defence policy: national governments, NATO, EU, other; knowledge test: field on which most of the EU budget is spent; assessment of the role of the United States and the European Union regarding: peace in the world, fight against terrorism, global economic growth, fight against poverty in the world, environmental protection; frequency of feeling European; national pride; pride of being European; attitude towards the accession of Switzerland, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Iceland, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Turkey to the EU; attitude towards selected statements on Turkey: belongs to Europe by its geography, belongs to Europe by its history, accession would strengthen security in this region, cultural differences are too significant, accession would rejuvenate European aging population, accession would favour immigration to more developed countries in the EU, has to systematically respect human rights, has to improve state of its economy before accession; attitude towards the European Constitution; expected impact of the adoption of the European Constitution on the EU: will become more democratic, will become more efficient, will become more transparent, will be stronger in the world, will be more competitive economically, will be more socially-minded; attitude towards the European Constitution after the no-vote of France and the Netherlands: ratification process should be continued, constitution should be renegotiated, constitution should be dropped; impact of a constitution on the functioning of European institutions; state of development in the EU in selected fields compared to the USA: scientific research, medical research, environmental protection, innovation technology, healthcare system, education, fight against social disparities, fight against unemployment, fight against discrimination, creation of new companies; assessment of the effect of the single market on competition as positive; assessment of the development of the international competitiveness of companies in the own country due to the single market as positive; personal benefit from selected achievements of the EU: euro, wider variety of goods from other EU countries, rights of EU citizens, no or less border controls, work or study in other EU countries, consumer rights, right to bring a case before the Court of Justice; preferred statement on globalisation: good opportunity for companies in the own country due to the opening up of markets, threatens employment and companies in the own country; effect of globalisation on the following fields: economic growth in the own country, solidarity between countries, scientific and technical progress, democracy in the world, quality of public services, disparities between countries, employment in the own country, environment, health; EU protects its citizens from the negative effects of globalisation (Split A), EU enables its citizens to better benefit from the positive effects of globalisation (Split B); preferred measures to improve the performance of the European economy: increase legal number of working hours, improve education and professional training, invest in research and innovation, facilitate the creation of companies, more efficient energy use, invest in transport infrastructure; approval of selected statements: state intervenes too much in personal lives, equality and justice prior to individual freedom, necessity for more severe punishment of criminals, more participation of citizens in politics in the own country, immigrants contribute a lot to the own country, economic growth prior to environmental protection (Split A), environmental protection prior to economic growth (Split B), free competition is a guarantee of prosperity, religion is too important in the own country, cannabis consumption should be legalized throughout Europe, homosexual marriage should be allowed throughout Europe, adoption of children should be authorized for homosexual couples throughout Europe, more importance to spare time than to work; most important personal values; values that best represent the EU; amount of shared values between the member states; helpful issues for the future of Europe: common language, well defined external EU borders, introduction of the euro in all EU countries, comparable living standards, common army, common constitution; assessment of the current situation in the following areas: national economy, European economy, national employment situation, environment, social welfare in the own country; self-rated interest in: domestic affairs, European affairs.

2. Mobile phone use (roaming): comparison of the prices for local mobile phone services and for services abroad for: making and receiving calls, sending and receiving text messages, advanced mobile data communications services; ownership of a mobile phone for the following purposes: private use, business use; use of mobile telephony by: contract, prepaid, both; frequency of travels in the last twelve months to: other EU countries for private purposes, to other EU countries for business purposes, to countries outside the EU; most frequently used mobile communication services abroad: make voice calls, receive voice calls, send text messages, receive text messages, advanced mobile data communications services, leave mobile phone at home, switch off mobile phone; mobile phone use abroad: use same SIM card and use mobile phone as often as at home, use same SIM card and use mobile phone less often than at home, use same SIM card and use mobile phone more often than at home, use SIM card of the country of visit; most important reason for using own mobile phone less frequently abroad; most important reason for not using own mobile phone abroad; likelihood to use mobile phone more often abroad if prices were lower; attitude towards selected statements on prices for mobile phone services: awareness of the prices for making or receiving calls in other EU countries, EU should guarantee similar prices for sending and receiving text messages in all EU countries, EU should guarantee similar prices for making or receiving calls in all EU countries.

3. Farm animal welfare: self-rated knowledge about the conditions under which animals are farmed in the own country; desire for more information; preferred sources of information; importance of the protection of animal welfare (scale); need for improvement of the protection of animal welfare in the own country; development of the protection of animal welfare in the own country over the last ten years; preferred authorities to ensure animal welfare-friendly production of food products; assessment of the choice of animal welfare-friendly products in shops; willingness to change usual place of shopping in order to buy more animal welfare-friendly food products; easiness to find information on products from animal welfare-friendly production systems in supermarkets; difficulty to identify animal welfare-friendly products by specific labels; preferred methods to identify animal welfare conditions under which food products are sourced: posters or displays in shops, written information labels on product wrapping, logos on product wrapping, colour coding on product wrapping, image of the production system, grading or scoring system; approval of financial compensation of farmers for higher production costs linked to better animal welfare-friendly conditions; imported products from outside the EU should meet EU standards; most important reasons to buy food products produced in a more animal welfare-friendly way.

Demography: nationality; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; left-right self-placement; marital status; age at end of education; sex; age; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; country of birth; religious denomination; attendance of religious services; possession of durable goods (entertainment electronics, internet connection, possession of a car, a flat/a house have finished paying for or still paying for).

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; questionnaire split; interviewer ID; weighting factor.