Question wording and overall response frequencies

Eurobarometer 47.1

Q.22. What is your opinion on each of the following proposals ? Please tell me for each proposal, whether you are

for it or against it.

(EACH STATEMENT IS READ IN A DIFFERENT ORDER FOR EACH INTERVIEW)

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

| READ OUT | For | Against | DK |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

| 1. There should be one single currency, the Euro, replacing the (NATIONAL | |

| CURRENCY) and all other national currencies of the Member States of the | |

| European Union (M) | 7589 6565 1987 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| 2. The Member States of the European Union should have one common foreign | |

| policy towards countries outside the European Union | 9804 3704 2630 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| 3. The European Union Member States should have a common defence and | |

| military policy | 10045 3929 2167 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| | |

| 4. The European Union should be responsible for matters that cannot be | |

| effectively handled by national, regional and local governments | 9584 3282 3272 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| 5. The President and the members of the European Commission should have the | |

| support of a majority in the European Parliament. Otherwise, they should | |

| resign | 10866 1541 3731 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| | |

| 6. In matters of European Union legislation, taxation and expenditure, the | |

| European Parliament should have equal rights with the Council of Ministers, | |

| which represents the national governments | 7435 3247 5452 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| 7. Any citizen of another European Union country who resides in (OUR | |

| COUNTRY) should have the right to vote in local elections | 8231 6039 1866 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| 8. Any citizen of another European Union country who resides in (OUR | |

| COUNTRY) should have the right to be a candidate in local elections | 6583 7456 2102 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| 9. Children should be taught at school about the way European Union | |

| institutions work | 14076 976 1087 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| 10. The European Union should support film and television production in | |

| Europe in order to achieve a better balance between American, Japanese and | |

| European productions | 9900 2790 3446 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

Q.23. Some people believe that certain areas of policy should be decided by the (NATIONAL) government, while other

areas of policy should be decided jointly within the European Union.

Which of the following areas of policy do you think should be decided by the (NATIONAL) government, and which

should be decided jointly within the European Union ?

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

| READ OUT - ROTATING THE ORDER | (NATIONAL) | The European | |

| | government | Union | DK |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

| a) Defence | 8053 7137 953 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| b) Protection of the environment | 5990 9503 650 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| c) Currency | 7256 7761 1126 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| d) Co-operation with developing countries, Third World | 3717 11309 1119 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| e) Health and social welfare | 10476 4966 701 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| f) Basic rules for broadcasting and press | 8591 6302 1248 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| g) Workers' rights vis-à-vis their employers | 9229 6018 889 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| h) Immigration policy | 7261 7930 950 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| i) The fight against unemployment | 7538 7934 672 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| j) Agriculture and Fishing policy | 7596 7414 1133 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| l) Supporting regions which are experiencing economic difficulties | 5181 9883 1075 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| m) Education | 10162 5267 716 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| n) Scientific and technological research | 4362 10741 1036 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| o) Rates of VAT (Value Added Tax) | 7407 7188 1549 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| | |

| p) Foreign policy towards countries outside the European Union | 4297 10432 1410 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| q) Cultural policy | 9828 5215 1094 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| r) Rules for political asylum | 6903 7996 1247 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

| t) The fight against drugs | 4507 10963 674 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

Source: Melich (1999)

From the questions cited above we selected those closely related to the issue areas discussed at the Amsterdam treaty negotiations. We only considered the responses of individuals giving answers to all questions we employed, and who also stated a preference for a political party. The positions of the parties were determined by the mean position of their sympathizers. Based on the constitutional provisions reported in table 1, we determined the pivotal parties in all chambers in parliament and their respective position on a particular issue. We report in table 7 the identity of the parliamentary pivotal actor (in both houses if applicable) and its ideal-point (located between 0 and 1), while table 8 lists the abbreviations used in table 7. In table 9 we report for all actors and all issue areas the distances to the draft treaty (dist am'), to the final Amsterdam Treaty (dist am), and to the status quo (dist sq). In table 10 we report the losses and gains of the governmental actors in each of the issue areas.

Table 7: Preferences of ratification pivots over 6 issue areas

	issue area	I	I	II	III	III	IV	VI	VII	VII
		right to vote	candidate	subsidiarity	worker's rights	fight unemploy- ment	environ- ment	agriculture	foreign policy	defense policy
	pivot	q2207	q2208	q2204	q2307	q2309	q2302	q2310	q2202	q2203
B	lower house	CVP	CVP	PSC	ECOLO	CVP	CVP	ECOLO	CVP	CVP
	position	0.44	0.29	0.83	0.67	0.74	0.73	0.69	0.76	0.77
	upper house	CVP	CVP	PSC	ECOLO	CVP	VLD	SP	CVP	CVP
	position	0.44	0.29	0.83	0.67	0.74	0.81	0.73	0.76	0.77
	overall	CVP	CVP	PSC	ECOLO	CVP	CVP	ECOLO	CVP	CVP
	position	0.44	0.29	0.83	0.67	0.74	0.73	0.69	0.76	0.77
DK	lower house	SD	SD	RV	SD	SD	SD	SD	SFP	RV
	position	0.32	0.28	0.67	0.20	0.39	0.54	0.55	0.46	0.37
D	lower house	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU
	position	0.56	0.51	0.78	0.39	0.52	0.74	0.65	0.80	0.86
	upper house	SPD	SPD	B 90 / G	SPD	SPD	CDU/CSU	SPD	CDU/CSU	SPD
	position	0.62	0.53	0.80	0.41	0.53	0.74	0.66	0.80	0.87
	overall	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU	CDU/CSU
	position	0.56	0.51	0.78	0.39	0.52	0.74	0.65	0.80	0.86
Gr	lower house	PASOK	PASOK	PASOK	PASOK	ND	ND	PASOK	PASOK	PASOK
	position	0.51	0.38	0.84	0.52	0.58	0.64	0.43	0.83	0.82
I	lower house	PDS	FI	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS
	position	0.75	0.71	0.89	0.48	0.74	0.76	0.53	0.90	0.90
	upper house	PDS	RC	AN	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS
	position	0.75	0.69	0.93	0.48	0.74	0.76	0.53	0.90	0.90
	overall	PDS	RC	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS	PDS
	position	0.75	0.69	0.89	0.48	0.74	0.76	0.53	0.90	0.90
E	lower house	P.P.	P.S.O.E.	P.P.	B.N.G.	P.P.	P.P.	IU	P.P.	P.P.
	position	0.82	0.74	0.86	0.56	0.54	0.67	0.50	0.86	0.87
	upper house	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.
	position	0.82	0.79	0.86	0.47	0.54	0.67	0.47	0.86	0.87
	overall	P.P.	P.S.O.E.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.	P.P.
	position	0.82	0.74	0.86	0.47	0.54	0.67	0.47	0.86	0.87
F	congress	RPR	RPR	RPR	RPR	UDF	PS	RPR	UDF	UPF
	position	0.49	0.33	0.54	0.40	0.54	0.70	0.55	0.70	0.74
Irl	lower house	PD	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF
	position	0.75	0.69	0.84	0.54	0.53	0.52	0.41	0.77	0.68
	upper house	PD	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF
	position	0.75	0.69	0.84	0.54	0.53	0.52	0.41	0.77	0.68
	overall	PD	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF	FF
	position	0.75	0.69	0.84	0.54	0.53	0.52	0.41	0.77	0.68
UK	lower house	LAB	LAB	LAB	LAB	LAB	LAB	LAB	LAB	LAB
	position	0.50	0.43	0.66	0.45	0.34	0.50	0.40	0.58	0.71
L	lower house	CSV	CSV	G	CSV	CSV	LSAP	G	DP	ADR
	position	0.51	0.37	0.75	0.36	0.52	0.63	0.51	0.84	0.81
NL	lower house	RPF	AOV	VVD	CDA	PVDA	VVD	SP	VVD	CDA
	position	0.55	0.50	0.66	0.49	0.55	0.86	0.77	0.86	0.88
	upper house	CDA	CDA	VVD	CDA	PVDA	VVD	CDA	VVD	CDA
	position	0.55	0.45	0.66	0.49	0.55	0.86	0.75	0.86	0.88
	overall	CDA	CDA	VVD	CDA	PVDA	VVD	CDA	VVD	CDA
	position	0.55	0.45	0.66	0.49	0.55	0.86	0.75	0.86	0.88
P	lower house	PS	PS	PCP/CDU	PS	PS	PS	PS	PS	PS
	position	0.65	0.57	0.77	0.49	0.54	0.52	0.50	0.76	0.77
SF	lower house	SDP	SDP	KESK	SDP	KOK	RKP	KESK	VAS	VAS
	position	0.50	0.46	0.71	0.16	0.38	0.42	0.09	0.44	0.26
S	lower house	M	M	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
	position	0.53	0.43	0.62	0.22	0.50	0.53	0.47	0.51	0.56
A	lower house	SPOe	SPOe	OeVP	SPOe	SPOe	OeVP	SPOe	SPOe	SPOe
	position	0.46	0.33	0.67	0.29	0.49	0.49	0.45	0.69	0.69
	upper house	OeVP	SPOe	OeVP	SPOe	SPOe	OeVP	SPOe	SPOe	SPOe
	position	0.39	0.33	0.67	0.29	0.49	0.49	0.45	0.69	0.69
	overall	OeVP	SPOe	OeVP	SPOe	SPOe	OeVP	SPOe	SPOe	SPOe
	position	0.39	0.33	0.67	0.29	0.49	0.49	0.45	0.69	0.69

Table 8: Abbreviations of political parties

country	party abbreviation	party name
B	ECOLO	Ecologists (Wallon)
	CVP	Christian Peoples Party
	PSC	Christian Social Party
	VLD	Liberal Party (Flemish)
DK	SD	Social Democrats
	SFP	Socialist People’s Party
	RV	Radical Party
D	SPD	Social Democratic Party
	CDU/CSU	Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union
	B 90/G	Bündnis 90 / Grüne
Gr	PASOK	Panhellenic socialist movement
	ND	New Democracy
I	FI	Forza Italia
	PPI	Partito Popolare Italiano
	AN	Alleanza Nazionale
	PDS	Partito Democratico della Sinistra
	RC	Refounded Communists
E	P.P.	Popular Party
	P.S.O.E	Spanish Socialist Workers Party
F	RPR	Rally for the Republic
	UDF	French Democratic Union
	PS	Socialist Party
Irl	FF	Fianna Fail
	PD	Progressive Democratic Party
UK	LP	Labour Party
L	LSAP	Workers' Party
	GLEI-GAP	Green Left Ecological Initiative
	CSV	Christian Social Party
NL	RPF	Reformed Political Federation
	CDA	Christian Democratic Appeal
	SP	Socialistische Partij
	PVDA	Labour Party
	VVD	Liberal Party
	AOV	General Association of Elderly People
P	PS	Socialist Party
	PCP/CDU	Communist Party/Unified Democratic Coalition
SF	SDP	Social Democrats
	KESK	Center Party
	KOK	Coalition Party (Cons.)
	VAS	Left League
	RKP	Swedish People's Party
S	M	Conservatives
	SD	Social Democrats
A	öevp	Austrian People's Party
	SPöe	Socialist Party
	GAL	Green-alternative list