Eurobarometer 68.2: European Union Policy and Decision Making, Corruption, Civil Justice, E-Communications, Agriculture, and Environmental Protection, November, 2007 - January, 2008

The Eurobarometer (EB) survey series is a unique programme of cross-national and cross-temporal comparative social science research. Since the early seventies representative national samples in all European Union (EU) (formerly the European Community (EC)) member states have been simultaneously interviewed in the spring and autumn of each year. Starting with EB 34.1 (autumn 1990), separate supplementary surveys on special issues have been conducted under almost every EB number. The EB is designed to provide regular monitoring of public social and political attitudes in the EU through specific trend questions. More information about the series may be found on the Zentralarchiv fuer Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA - Central Archive for Empirical Social Research, University of Cologne) Eurobarometer Survey Series web pages. Background Work on European survey series began in early 1970, when the Commission of the European Community sponsored simultaneous surveys of the EC. These surveys were designed to measure public awareness of, and attitudes toward, the Common Market and other EC institutions, in complementary fashion. They also probed the goals given top priority for each respondent's nation. These concerns have remained a central part of the EC's research efforts - which were carried forward in the summer of 1971 with another six-nation survey that gave special attention to agricultural problems. The nine EC member countries were then surveyed again on the same topic areas in September 1973. After 1973, the surveys took on a somewhat broader scope in content as well as in geographical coverage, with measures of subjective satisfaction and the perceived quality of life becoming standard features of the EC public opinion surveys. Over time, the member states of the EC/EU have increased in number, and the coverage of the EB surveys has widened accordingly. In 1974, nine countries were surveyed: France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Luxembourg. Greece has been included since the autumn 1980 survey (EB 14) onwards, Portugal and Spain since autumn 1985 (EB 24), the former German Democratic Republic since autumn 1990 (EB 34), Finland since the spring of 1993 (EB 39), and Sweden and Austria since the autumn of 1994 (EB 42). Norway has been included in some surveys since 1991, from EB 36 onwards. In 2004, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU, and in 2007, Bulgaria and Romania (some of these countries participated in the Candidate Countries Eurobarometer survey series (see under GN 33343) before full accession). Some surveys are also conducted in Turkey, and in the Turkish Cypriot Community (Northern Cyprus). The Eurobarometer public opinion surveys are conducted on behalf of and co-ordinated by the European Commission, DG Press and Communication - Opinion Polls Sector (European Commission Public Opinion Analysis). Special topic modules are carried out at the request of the responsible EU Directorate General. For the second edition (August 2009), all embargos have been lifted. Main Topics:This round of Eurobarometer surveys diverged from the Standard Eurobarometer measures and queried respondents on the following major areas of focus: EU policy and decision-making, corruption, civil justice, e-communications, agriculture, and environmental protection. For the first major focus, EU policy and decision-making, respondents were queried about whether more or less decision-making should take place at the EU level in regards to the following topics: asylum and migration policy, exchange of police and judicial information between member states, the fight against drug abuse, the control of external borders of the EU, the fight against terrorism, and the promotion and protection of fundamental rights, including children's rights. Of these, respondents were asked which topics they thought should be the three priorities of the EU, which topics they felt well informed on, and which topics they would like to be better informed. For the second major focus, corruption, respondents were asked whether they agreed that corruption is a major problem in their country and a major problem in local, regional, national, and EU institutions. They also answered questions regarding how widespread they thought bribery and abuse of power were, if in the last 12 months they had been asked or expected to pay a bribe for services, whether they agreed that most corruption is caused by organised crime, and whose responsibility it is to prevent and fight corruption. For the third major focus, civil justice, respondents were asked if they had ever been involved in civil justice procedures in another EU member state, and what their opinion was about the ease of accessing civil justice outside of their own country. Respondents were also asked if additional measures should be taken to assist in access to civil justice in another EU member state, what their main concerns were about the procedures, and their preference for contract terms in purchasing products in other EU member states. In addition, respondents were queried about whether there should be uniform procedures in the EU for civil and commercial claims, if rulings made in one member state should freely apply in another member state, the main difficulties in enforcing rulings in another member state, if the EU should intervene in the enforcement of civil court rulings between member states, and the usefulness of having access to civil justice in another member state via the Internet. For the fourth major focus, e-communications, respondents provided information on the availability within their own households of each of the following communication systems: television, fixed telephone, mobile phones, and the Internet. Respondents were asked to identify reasons why they owned or did not own certain systems, including television, fixed/mobile phones, and telecommunication bundles, the accessibility of these systems in their household, their use of public payphones and telephone directories, and their knowledge of emergency service numbers. In addition, respondents assessed the performance of each system, shared their expectations as consumers, and rated the effectiveness of their service providers and available features of the systems (e.g., costs, tariffs, and flexibility with account changes). For the fifth major focus, agriculture, respondents shared their opinions about the importance of agriculture in the EU, their knowledge of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), whether they wanted more information about CAP, and from what sources they would gather that information. The survey also asked what should be the main priorities of the EU in terms of CAP, how well CAP fulfills its role, and what the main responsibilities of farmers should be. Respondents were further questioned in regard to the EU's reduction of the subsidy for farmers, what their opinions were about trade barriers, and whether the current amount of budgeting for agriculture was adequate. For the sixth major focus, environmental protection, queries included how important environmental protection was, what was meant by "the environment," what were the main environmental issues that worried them, how informed they felt about the environment, what issues they would like more information on, their main sources of environmental information, and who they trusted the most for information on environmental issues. In addition, respondents were queried about the best way to evaluate progress in environmental protection, the comparison of environmental protection versus economic competitiveness, personal efforts to protect the environment, what should be the priorities of citizens in daily life, and how environmental decisions should be made by government and by public authorities. Further questions included what the most effective way to tackle environmental problems should be, whether an EU civil protection force should be set up, and their opinions about the labeling of environmentally friendly products and the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Demographic and other background information includes age, gender, nationality, origin of birth (personal and parental), marital status, left-right political self-placement, occupation, age when stopped full-time education, household composition, ownership of other durable goods, Internet use, type and size of locality, region of residence, and language of interview (in select countries).