Public Opinion about the European Parliament

Abstract

From the outset, the Eurobarometer surveys have followed up public opinion not only with respect to the European Community (EC) at large but also in regard to one of its major institutions, the European Parliament (EP). The following dimensions of public opinion about the European Parliament have been examined systematically: awareness, knowledge, evaluation and support.¹ Because the same operationalizations have been used over a long period of time, most of these dimensions can be analysed longitudinally. This will be done in the first part of this chapter, i.e. we will give a cross-nationally comparative overview about the development of public opinion about the EP in the course of time. The second part deals with the question whether the various attitudes about the EP and its political objectives are systematically interrelated.