European Election Studies (EES) 1999

The European Election Study 1999 is a sample survey of the electorates of the member states of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. It focuses in particular on the direct elections to the European Parliament, which were conducted in June 1999, and was fielded immediately following these elections.Unlike previous studies, this one was not added as additional questions to an existing Eurobarometer study. Instead, a telephone survey of voters in each of the 15 member countries of the EU was conducted, with sample sizes roughly proportional to population (minimum sample size 300). Sample size in the United Kingdom was approximately 1,300, of which approximately 300 interviews were conducted in Northern Ireland. The total number of interviews conducted amounts to approximately 13,500.

The questionnaires for the study were identical in the various member states, apart from minor but unavoidable differences generated by differences in party names and country-specific institutions. A large number of questions were identical to those used in 1989, and 1994, thus permitting over-time comparisons of voter behavior in the 1989, 1994, 1999 elections.

The selection of topics and questions includes: electoral behavior including questions on party choices, past voting behavior, voting behavior at the national level, party preferences, and propensity to support particular parties; general political attitudes and behavior based on a question of interest in politics, campaign, most important problems, attitudes regarding EU, left-right self-placement, placement of parties; background characteristics including gender, age, education, religion, media consumption.

The voter study was funded by the Dutch NWO, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Mannheim, Trinity College, Hartford, and others.

For a European Election Study (EES) Trend File covering the voter studies from 1989 to 2004 see also the website of Michael Marsh and Slava Mikhaylov at Trinity College Dublin.

• Data and Documents: The data and extensive documentation are available at the DANS – Data Archiving and Networked Services, Codebook (1.68 MB), Questionnaire (27 kB)

The 1999 Media Study is integrated in the European Election Study Longitudinal Media Study, a data set comprising of 1999 European Election Media Study, 2004 European Election Media Study, and 2009 European Election Media Study. The 1999 study was funded by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO)

The 2004 Media Study is part of the European Election Study Longitudinal Media Study, an integrated data set comprising of 1999 European Election Media Study, 2004 European Election Media Study, and 2009 European Election Media Study. The 2004 study was funded by research grants from the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO), the Halle Foundation, the EU CIVICACTIVE Research Program (FP6), Emory University and the Amsterdam School of Communications Research / University of Amsterdam.

The content analysis was carried out on a sample of national news media coverage in 15 EU member states in 1999, in 24 EU member states in 2004, and in all 27 EU member states in 2009. In all waves, we focus on national television and newspapers because these media are consistently listed as the most important sources of information about the EU for citizens in Europe (Eurobarometer 54–62).

In all three waves, we included the main national evening news broadcasts of the most widely watched public and commercial television stations by country. We also include one or two “quality” and one tabloid newspaper from each country. For countries without a relevant tabloid newspaper, the most sensationalist-oriented other daily newspaper was included. In 1999, the data set includes only one national broadsheet newspaper and thus is missing a sensationalist-oriented newspaper. In some countries, the exact outlets coded vary to a certain extent from year to year. The exact outlets in each year are given in the Appendix of the Codebook (s. Data and Documents).

• Data and Documents

• Please see here.