Candidate Countries Eurobarometer 2003.1: New Europeans and Culture, March - April, 2003

<p>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</p>In October 2001, the European Commission launched a new series of surveys in the 13 countries that are applying for European Union (EU) membership under the heading Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (CC-EB). Initially named Applicant Countries Eurobarometer or AC-EB, the surveys were ordered and co-ordinated by the Directorate-General for Press and Communication (Public Opinion Analysis). The CC-EB surveys are carried out in Bulgaria, Republic of Cyprus (with a separate Northern Cyprus survey parallel to 2002.2), Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey. After a four year gap they are replacing the former Central and Eastern Eurobarometer. A pilot survey was conducted for test purposes in winter 1999/2000. After the EU enlargement in May 2004, the CC-EB series became part of the Standard Eurobarometer, intermittently also including the remaining candidate countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Croatia and Northern Cyprus. <br> <br> Candidate Countries Eurobarometer gathers information from the societies which are applying to become members of the EU in a way that is comparable with the Standard Eurobarometer. Also the methodology used is almost identical to that of the Standard Eurobarometer.<br> <br> Every survey is carried out on national representative samples of around 1,000 respondents (realised interviews) aged 15 and over in each country, except Malta and Cyprus, where the samples are of 500 respondents, using face-to-face interviewing at the respondent's home. The national samples reflect the structure of population aged 15+ in terms of gender, age, regions of a country, settlement size, education level, and marital status. In each of the 13 candidate countries, the surveys are carried out by national institutes associated with and co-ordinated by the Hungarian office of The Gallup Organization in Budapest and Gallup Europe in Brussels.<br> <br> A large selection of Eurobarometer Survey Series datasets, including standard Eurobarometers, Central and Eastern Eurobarometers and Candidate Countries Eurobarometers, are available to browse, analyse and download online via Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Data Archive for the Social Sciences' (GESIS) <a href="http://zacat.gesis.org/" title="ZACAT">ZACAT</a> service. Data analysis and downloading require online registration with ZACAT and there is no restriction upon who can register.<br> <br> GESIS was formed in 2007 when three independent institutes merged (Social Science Information Centre (IZ) in Bonn, Central Archive for Empirical Social Research in Cologne (ZA), and Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) in Mannheim). Users should note that all EC-EBs were deposited by ZA but are now available from GESIS.<br> <br> Further information can be found on the <a href="http://www.gesis.org/en/eurobarometer/survey-series/candidate-countries-eb/" title ="GESIS Candidate Countries Eurobarometer">GESIS Candidate Countries Eurobarometer</a> web pages.<br><B>Main Topics</B>:<br>Support for and benefit from EU membership (referendum); attitudes towards EU policies; common foreign and security policy (role of the USA); cultural activities