Press Release: Measuring attitudes and values: what Europeans think and feel

Preview of a comprehensive new survey presented on 25 November 2003 at a conference in Brussels. The survey findings shed light on major social trends in Europe. Involving 22 countries and their national research agencies, the European Social Survey (ESS) is a definitive study on changing attitudes and values in Europe which pulls together EU, international and national resources in a common endeavour. Early findings of the study suggest that, as a group, Europeans do not trust their politicians and institutions, electoral turnout is low, active involvement in public life is limited, and the fabric of society is weak. But the picture is not all bleak: by comparing countries within Europe, we can see that some countries have managed to resist this decline much better than others. Moreover, comparison with the USA shows that, whereas a generation of disillusioned youngsters alienated from society seems to be developing in the US, the youth of Europe are just as likely as their older counterparts to be engaged in voluntary organisations. The new European Social Survey will enable the EU to track these trends over time to see to what extent they vary between different countries and indeed continents

http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/ http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/

---