Qualitative studies

Qualitative survey about Patient involvement
"What do patients and healthcare professionals think about an active role of patients in their healthcare? In a qualitative Eurobarometer study, we collected opinions of doctors and patients on patient involvement in healthcare. In depth interviews were held with practitioners, nurses and patients in 15 Member States to learn about what they experience in their clinical practice. It shows that patient involvement in healthcare is not a sharply defined concept and that the traditional patient-doctors relationship is still the most common."

Qualitative survey about Tobacco Packaging Health Warning Labels
This Qualitative Eurobarometer study investigates a second generation of tobacco packaging health warnings. The overall aim of the study was to evaluate 24 proposed new health warnings in order to establish which were likely to have the greatest impact, how the messages could be modified to enhance their impact and which fourteen would represent the best selection for adoption.

Qualitative survey about Journalists and Social Media
Increasingly governments are interested in harnessing new social media to increase involvement and participation in policy development and evaluation. Social media is transforming communications from old notions of “broadcasting information” to “contributing and interacting”.
Social media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue and they can take many different forms, including internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. The most commonly used social media include: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and YouTube.
The aim of this study is to provide detailed qualitative information on journalists’ views and attitudes to social media as well as how they use it as part of their work. Journalists also give their opinion on how the EU uses social media and gave suggestions on how social media communication could be improved.
The study consisted of in-depth interviews with journalists in each of the 27 Member States.

Qualitative survey about Internal Market: Awareness, Perceptions and Impacts
The aim of this study is to gain views from EU citizens on aspects of the EU Single Market and the four freedoms it embraces. Citizens, who often have no idea what the Single Market is all about, will normally have a lot of experience with various measures that have been taken under the framework. The study is aiming to shed light on three levels: (i) citizens’ awareness of internal market policies of the EU, (ii) their perceptions of these policies and (iii) the impact these policies have on their lives and activities.

Qualitative survey about Obstacles citizens face in the Internal Market
EU citizens and businesses often experience problems with the use of their Single Market rights. When they travel, move or work abroad they can encounter difficulties making use of their healthcare or social security rights, having their professional qualifications recognised, opening a bank account or with double taxation. Inheriting across borders, taking a car to another Member State, buying online, claiming passenger rights or finding their way in banking and financial markets are also concerns from our citizens and business. The purpose of the study is to better understand the root causes of these obstacles and to check to what extent the latters are expected or experienced by the citizens, i.e. to test the gap between people's expectations about the Single Market and the problems and frustrations they experience on a daily basis.

Qualitative survey about Local Authorities and the governance of the Single Market
Through this research the European Commission wanted to engage local authorities in discussions over the governance of the Single Market in order to identify potential areas of improvement of the EU policy making process. The discussions focused on local authorities' awareness and perceptions about EU policy making and on the main issues related to the implementation of EU legislation at their level.

Qualitative survey about Well-being
The concept of well-being is made up of several factors. In order to identify these different factors and to gain an initial indication of the relative importance of these, DG COMM commissioned a qualitative study which was conducted in February and March 2010 providing insights into the notion of personal well-being in 15 member states. It was able to identify a full range of factors that contribute to well-being in which psychological or personal factors slightly prevail over economic or financial factors and physical factors. Wishing to get a broad perspective of the concept of well-being, DG EMPL had a qualitative study conducted in 8 member states in January, March and April 2011 in order to determine the priorities of citizens for the well-being of society as a whole in 2030. It is worth noting that social equality was considered a key factor of social well-being..

Migrant Integration
The report presents the key messages and recommendations from interactive focus groups organised in all EU member countries with both EU citizens and migrant population. This qualitative Eurobarometer covers many aspects of the co-existence of people with different backgrounds and presents the role of mutual attitudes, cultures, ability to speak the country's language and employment in the integration process. The report also presents ideas for improving migrants' integration in the host societies. The results show the key role of school and work (places were migrants and local population meet most often) and underline the key role and responsibility of the local authorities.

Qualitative survey about the rights of the Child
This qualitative Eurobarometer study survey was conducted on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Justice amongst young people in all 27 Member States of the EU. The study consisted of 170 focus groups and looked at the topic of children’s rights.

Qualitative survey about cross-border mobility
This study allows to draw three overall conclusions which provide a context for the more detailed findings : • The right to free movement that EU citizens enjoy has been fully internalised by the people who are taking advantage of this right. This right is mostly ‘taken for granted’ which affects how respondents see themselves as citizens of the EU; how they plan their moves (often at very short notice, paying attention to administrative aspects of the move only after arrival in the new Member State); and what their expectations are of their rights in other EU Member States. • More than half of the respondents had experienced some form of administrative difficulty after arriving in their new Member State. The main issues that people encountered were the length of administrative procedures and a lack of clarity about what is required from citizens moving to another EU Member State. • EU citizenship is seen to broadly imply having similar rights and obligations in each Member State and as virtually synonymous with freedom of movement between Member States. The rights to mobility (freedom of movement), working and studying in any Member State are clearly implicitly assumed as fundamental rights by EU citizens.

Qualitative survey about the perceived quality of DG Competition's actions
This survey was based on in-depth interviews, carried out in early 2010 among lawyers, companies, economic consultants, business and consumer associations, Member States' ministries as well as national competition authorities who have directly contributed to the work of DG Competition in recent years. The results consist of seven individual reports reflecting each stakeholder group's specific views, as well as an aggregate report summarizing the results of the individual surveys.