Communiqué, issue 4, 2004
Articles
- Towards the Lisbon objectives: The new four-year programme
- Occupational pension systems in Europe
- Quality of life in Germany and Poland
- Focusing on Europe’s working poor
- ERM records high levels of job losses
- Living to work, working to live
- Life satisfaction varies but Europeans are generally optimistic about the future
- Challenging times ahead
Previous issues of Communiqué
Poles report lower than average levels of life satisfaction but show great optimism for the future, according to the Foundation’s European Quality of Life Survey. People in Germany rate their health and social services very highly but are also found to be among the least optimistic about the future in Europe.
The Foundation presented the findings of its European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) to representatives of governments, social partners and civil society in Germany and Poland in early July. The visits marked the first stop of a road-show tour, bringing the results of the survey to all EU25 and three candidate countries.
Discussions in Poland focused on people in Poland reporting lower than average levels of life satisfaction, at the same time as expressing a greater difficulty in making ends meet than people in the other nine new EU Member States. In Germany, discussions centred on the report revealing that Germans are found to be the least optimistic about the future compared to the citizens in the former EU15, the new Member States and the three candidate countries. However, Germans rate their health and social services very highly, compared to the citizens in the former EU15, the new Member States and the three candidate countries.
The Foundation’s research on quality of life in Europe, based on 26,000 face-to-face interviews across 28 European countries, sheds light on the living conditions, subjective well-being and individuals’ perceptions of their society.
Measuring perceptions of well-being
‘ In order to foster cohesion in a larger and more diversified European Union, policymakers and civil society actors need first of all to know not only how people live, but also how they perceive their situation: how individual quality of life is measured,’ says Willy Buschak, acting Director of the Foundation. ‘The results of our European Quality of Life Survey provide a unique portrait of quality of life in the enlarged Europe and in the three candidate countries.’