Euro-barometer 38.0: European Court of Justice, Passive Smoking, and Consumer Issues, September-October 1992

Résumé 0

This round of Euro-Barometer surveys focused on the current status and continuing development of the European Community (EC). Respondents were asked to choose which countries they believed should become part of the EC by the year 2000, to give their opinions on the imminent establishment of the Single European Market and the effectiveness of the European Parliament, and to indicate their knowledge and attitudes about the Maastricht Treaty and the proposed European Monetary Union. Participants in this Euro-Barometer also provided a detailed assessment of the operation of the European Court of Justice situated in Luxembourg. Respondents were asked whether they had a favorable impression of the Court, how important a part it played in the EC, how familiar they were with its activities, what role the Court should take on issues such as abortion, and how they viewed the relative importance of EC law versus the national laws of member countries. Respondents also furnished information concerning their attitudes and behavior toward smoking. Questions focused on the type of tobacco products used, the number of cigarettes consumed daily, the desire of smokers to limit their consumption, the attitudes of both smokers and nonsmokers toward the use of tobacco products in public, the effects of being exposed to other people's smoke ("passive smoking"), opinions regarding regulations prohibiting smoking in some public places, feelings about smoke in the workplace, the advertising of tobacco products, and knowledge of the "European Code of Cancer" (a set of elementary rules, developed by a committee of cancer experts, for the possible prevention of cancer). An additional section of this survey focused on the safety of consumer products and services. Respondents were asked what was most important to them when purchasing a product, whether enough attention was being paid to consumer product safety, what concerns they had regarding product safety, and whether governments, private companies, or consumers themselves were mainly responsible for the safe use of certain products. Other areas of focus included safety expectations while traveling in other countries and the need to be told about potentially dangerous situations such as nuclear accidents, oil spills, or water contamination, the value of insurance to cover risks while traveling, worries regarding the safety of older adults and children, and the incidence of major domestic accidents among family members. As in previous Euro-Barometers, questions on political party preference asked respondents which party they felt the closest to, how they voted in their country's last general election, and how they would vote if a general election were held the next day. Additional information was gathered on family income, number of people residing in the home, size of locality, home ownership, trade union membership, region of residence, occupation of the head of household, and the respondent's age, sex, education, religion, religiosity, subjective social class standing, socio-professional status, and left-right political self-placement.