Eurobarometer 64.2 (Oct-Nov 2005)

European economy and globalisation. Energy.

Agricultural policy. Topics: 1. Attitude towards the EU and the European Constitution: frequency of political discussions with friends; personal opinion leadership; life satisfaction; expectations for the next twelve months regarding: personal life in general, the national economic and employment situation, the financial situation of the own household, and the personal job situation; assessment of the present personal situation compared with five years ago; future expectations regarding the personal situation; trust in institutions; 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 (country’s security, exports, standard of living, agriculture, industry, services, and employment); EU image; attitude towards the development towards a European political union; meaning of the EU to the respondent; personal feelings towards the EU; perceived personal political efficacy in the EU as well as understanding of the processes in the EU; attitude towards higher involvement of the citizens in European affairs (scale: feeling of being involved in European affairs, desire for greater involvement, desire for greater efforts of the European institutions, the national and the local government to further involve citizens in European affairs); assessment of the current and the desired speed of building Europe (scale); fears about the European Union in terms of: power loss for smaller member countries, increase in drug trafficking and international organised crime, higher payments of the own country to the EU, loss of social benefits, loss of national identity, language and culture, economic crisis, transfer of jobs to other member countries, difficulties for national farmers; additionally in non-euro countries: end of national currency; frequency of the reception of news in the media (television, newspapers, and radio); self-assessed personal knowledge about the EU, its policies and institutions (scale); interest in information about the EU; preferred topics or policy areas on which more information is desired; used information sources about the EU; assessment of the extent of media coverage of topics regarding the EU as well as the image evoked; knowledge of selected EU institutions and trust in them; knowledge test on the EU (number of member states, direct election of the members of the European Parliament by the EU citizens, own anthem, time of the last European elections); most important problems of the own country; subsidiarity in selected areas (crime, taxation, fighting unemployment, fighting terrorism, defence and foreign affairs, immigration, educational system, pensions, environmental protection, health and social welfare, agricultural and fishing policy, consumer protection, research, support for regions facing economic difficulties, energy and competition policy); attitude towards: European Monetary Union, common foreign policy, common defence and security policy, further EU enlargement, EU constitution, two-speed Europe, EU institutions as a school subject; most important political goals in the own country; postmaterialism (scale); preferred actions of the European Union; preferred level of decision making in the field of European defence policy: national governments, NATO, or EU; attitude towards an increase of the EU budget; 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, the fight against terrorism and poverty, global economic growth, and environmental protection; frequency of feeling European; expected future personal identification as European or citizen of a national state; national pride; pride of being European; frequency of the identification as a citizen of the world; attitude towards selected countries becoming part of the EU (Switzerland, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Iceland, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Turkey); attitude towards the accession of Turkey to the EU (scale); opinion on the European Constitution; assessment of the impact of the adoption of the European Constitution on democracy, efficiency, and transparency in the European Union; expected impact of the adoption with regard to the EU’s strength in the world, its economic competitiveness and social-mindedness; opinion on the necessity of a European Constitution for the functioning of the European institutions. 2.