WRITTEN QUESTION E-1819/96 by Johanna Maij-Weggen (PPE) to the Commission (5 July 1996)

Subject: Public opinion poll on attitudes to Europe in the Netherlands

1. Is the Commission aware of the results of a poll commissioned by the newspaper NRC-Handelsblad and the University of Amsterdam which claims to show that public opinion in the Netherlands is much less favourably disposed to European integration than would appear from the surveys on which the Eurobarometer is based?

2. What is the Commission's view of an opinion-gathering procedure under which all questions are accompanied by the claim that opting for more integration will mean that the Netherlands will have to surrender some part of its sovereignty? Does the Commission consider this procedure as sufficiently objective for it to be applied in future to the Eurobarometer?

3. Why, in compiling its Eurobarometer, does the Commission never ask the Netherlands public how they would react if the Netherlands monarchy or the Dutch language were to be abolished, or if the Netherlands armed forces were to be placed under French, British or German command - all questions that are actually put in the opinion poll in question? Would the Commission agree that these items would have no place in an objective Eurobarometer procedure for the simple reason that there is no question of any such things happening?

4. Would the Commission be prepared to submit the procedures it uses in drawing up the Eurobarometer to an objectivity test and to compare the results obtained with the objectivity of the opinion poll in question, commissioned as it was by a respectable newspaper and a university of the highest academic repute?

Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission (16 September 1996)

1. The Commission is grateful to the Honourable Member for drawing its attention to an opinion poll on European integration carried out in the Netherlands on behalf of NRC-Handelsblad and two researchers from the university of Amsterdam. Contrary to what the authors of this poll claim, Eurobarometer survey results also revealed aspects of European integration where considerable proportions of the Dutch public were hesitant about further integration. For example, 45% of the Dutch respndents prefer a 'one country, one vote' mode of Council decision-making - i.e., not giving the larger Member States more weight than the smaller ones - and 54% of the Dutch respondents fear a loss of power for smaller Member States, as compared to 41% who say they do not. More generally, it is well known that poll results depend on the precise wording of questions, and a direct comparison of responses to different questions is therefore impossible. The remaining discrepancies between the NRC poll and Eurobarometer results appear to be due to this fact.

2. Whether it is appropriate to accompany a question by the claim that opting for more integration will mean that the Netherlands will have to surrender some part of its sovereignty is not only a methodological, but also a theoretical as well as a factual issue and certainly depends on the topic being addressed. In any case, six out of ten Dutch say that the Community should be responsible only for matters that cannot be effectively handled by national, regional or local governments.

3. The possible reaction of the Dutch people to the abolition of the Dutch monarchy bear no relation to European integration matters and the Commission sees no reason to address such a topic in its Eurobarometer polls. As to fears related to their language being used less and less, one out of three Dutch respondents expressed such a fear. Setting up a European army for common defence is a key priority for 38% of Dutch respondents while for 58% it is not. Testing citizens' feelings about the nationality of the commander of the armed forces of various member states in a Western European union or North Atlantic treaty organization common operation might reveal some interesting information, but the Commission currently sees no priority for this type of question.

4. The methodological solidity of the Commission's opinion polling has been open to scientific scrutiny - by any researcher - for more than twenty years. Its data are regularly deposited at university social science data archives.