DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06748
title: Eurobarometer 44.2BIS Mega-Survey: Policies and Practices in Building Europe and the European Union, January-March 1996
title: Archival Version

description: This round of Eurobarometer surveys queried respondents on
 standard Eurobarometer measures, such as how satisfied they were with
 their present life, whether they attempted to persuade others close to
 them to share their views on subjects they held strong opinions about,
 whether they discussed political matters, what their country's goals
 should be for the next ten years, and how they viewed the need for
 societal change. Additional questions focused on the respondents'
 knowledge of and opinions on the European Union (EU), including how
 well-informed they felt about the EU, what sources of information
 about the EU they used, whether their country had benefited from being
 an EU member, and the extent of their personal interest in EU
 matters. Another major focus of the surveys was expectations and fears
 regarding the EU. Respondents were asked whether they feared economic
 crisis, loss of power for smaller member states, increased crime, more
 foreign workers, language acculturation, richer member countries
 paying for less rich countries, slower decisions due to bureaucracy,
 disappearance of small and midsized farms, businesses, and fisheries,
 loss of social benefits, transfer of jobs, massive imports, more
 taxes, decisions being imposed by the bigger member countries, and
 loss of national identity. Respondents were also asked to evaluate the
 likelihood of such situations occurring. Expectations of the EU were
 assessed through questions concerning whether areas such as defense,
 employment, culture, environment, consumerism, agriculture and
 fishing, immigration, border control, transportation, importation,
 social justice, equality, law, crime, and research should be
 considered key priorities for the EU. Opinions were sought on the
 necessity of various policies to further EU progress, which groups of
 people (such as students, retirees, the unemployed, large companies,
 farmers) were in favor of the EU, and which countries and groups
 benefited most from the EU. Respondents also provided information as
 to which areas of policy they believed should be decided by the EU and
 which decided by their national governments. With respect to further
 progress in building Europe, respondents not only described their
 reactions to this concept but also indicated whether they thought it
 was necessary to implement a single internal market, a common
 agricultural policy, a European social policy, a European environment
 policy, one European foreign policy, one army, a European currency,
 one tax system, an elected European government, and European
 citizenship in addition to national citizenship. Demographic and other
 background information was elicited on the number of people residing
 in the home, household income, and region of residence, as well as the
 respondent's age, sex, marital status, occupation, and left-right
political self-placement.
description: Multistage national probability samples.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Eurobarometer 44.2BIS Mega-Survey: Policies and Practices in Building Europe and the European Union, January-March 1996
description: Persons aged 15 and over residing in the 15 member nations
 of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,
 Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
description: The codebook is provided by ICPSR as an ASCII text
 file as well as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, and the data
 collection instrument is also provided by ICPSR as a PDF file. The PDF
 file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be
 accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat
 Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is
provided on the ICPSR Web site.