1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:22,120 Brussels, the working day begins for Magdalena Pekoszka, an operator at the helpline, EuropeDirect. 2 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:25,980 For the next eight hours, she'll listen to European citizens and answer their questions 3 00:00:25,980 --> 00:00:28,160 about the European Union. 4 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:32,160 She's been working here for eight months and now knows quite a bit about their concerns. 5 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:37,160 The standard questions are the three biggest groups, 6 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:42,160 that is, moving to another country in the European Union in order to find a job, 7 00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:48,160 also the notification of diplomas in other countries of the European Union, 8 00:00:48,160 --> 00:00:54,160 that this is also related to it, and obtaining funds from the European Union. 9 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:56,160 This is a large group of questions. 10 00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:59,160 Employment and mobility. 11 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:04,160 These then are the top priorities for Europeans when they contact EuropeDirect. 12 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,160 This morning as well, Magdalena is talking with one of her Polish compatriots, 13 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:12,160 who wants to know about the formalities involved in getting a job in Spain. 14 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:32,160 OK, thank you. 15 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,160 EuropeDirect is an initiative of the European Commission. 16 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:42,160 The service is accessible in the 25 member states via one single free phone number and via the Internet. 17 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:46,160 More than 80,000 people contacted the service in 2004. 18 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:27,160 To answer questions in all these areas with the same high level of quality, 19 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:32,160 the 32 operators of EuropeDirect have lots of different tools at their disposal. 20 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:35,160 Our first and foremost tool is our knowledge base. 21 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:37,160 We have a team of people working on this, 22 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:41,160 and they feed this knowledge base constantly with the most important topics. 23 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:46,160 Then, of course, we have a full-time information officer who is part of our team, 24 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:50,160 and once a week she is going to give updates to the agents, 25 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:57,160 as well as sending ad hoc emails on really rather urgent and important matters or events that happen. 26 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:04,160 EuropeDirect's other strength is its operators, who come from all the Union's 25 member states. 27 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:07,160 Afternoon team member Nikos Noulas is Greek. 28 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:12,160 He has been working for the service for two years and can therefore easily describe the typical operator. 29 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:21,160 Most of the colleagues who work at EuropeDirect have studies in political science, 30 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:27,160 have studies in European institutions, 31 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:33,160 and they are more interested in working at European institutions, 32 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:39,160 so EuropeDirect is a challenge for them, because it is like a big school, I would say. 33 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:47,160 Like all his colleagues, Nikos speaks at least three languages, in his case Greek, French and English. 34 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:51,160 It is in one of these languages that European citizens will contact him. 35 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:57,160 Certain topics are more popular, as shown by the ranking of the most frequently asked questions. 36 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:03,160 In addition to employment and mobility, people essentially want to know about the way the European institutions work 37 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,160 and about the future of Europe, including the Constitution. 38 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:09,160 Nikos again. 39 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,160 We have questions that are very simple. 40 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:17,160 For example, I would like the details of a certain committee or someone who works in the committee. 41 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:24,160 We have questions about people who want to work at European institutions and want to have a career, 42 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:28,160 and we also have many questions about the European Constitution. 43 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:31,160 For example, which countries will have a referendum. 44 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:37,160 Indeed, the very next day our two operators are attending an information session 45 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,160 about the various referenda on the Constitution. 46 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:44,160 EuropeDirect's information officer discusses the ins and outs of this hot topic. 47 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:50,160 In this way, the entire team will be enabled to provide quality information to citizens. 48 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:58,160 The other countries that will hold the referendum are Czech Republic, Ireland and Portugal. 49 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:06,160 Then there will be also consultative referendum in other countries like Luxembourg, Netherlands and UK. 50 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:11,160 At the table in this meeting room, we also find Jan-Erik Stahlsboe. 51 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:16,160 He is Swedish and is one of the people responsible for the quality of responses given by EuropeDirect. 52 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,160 Together with three colleagues, he corrects junior operators' emails. 53 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:25,160 It must be a relevant answer to the question that the citizens have, 54 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:30,160 and we as correctors ensure that this is the case. 55 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:37,160 Jan-Erik's job also involves making sure that the citizens receive the very best service, 56 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:41,160 particularly when the questions are very specific, as happens frequently at EuropeDirect, 57 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,160 especially in the area of enterprise policy. 58 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:51,160 We cannot answer just about everything. 59 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:56,160 For instance, if you have someone that needs funding for business, 60 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:01,160 we must refer them to another network, 61 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:07,160 because we don't have the specifics of the funding of this region that this person is asking about. 62 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:14,160 EuropeDirect has three response channels, the telephone, email and web assistance, 63 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,160 a service which could be compared to a chatroom. 64 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:22,160 The operator responds to the questioner on the Internet in real time. 65 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:27,160 This is what Belgian-Italian operator Claudio Agace does in an average of 25 sessions a day. 66 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:45,160 In 2004, 7% of enquiries came via web assistant, 67 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:49,160 41% by email and 52% by telephone. 68 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:55,160 In a 12-month period, EuropeDirect operators answered some 80,000 questions 69 00:06:55,160 --> 00:07:00,160 in the 20 official languages of the European Union, 60% more than in 2003. 70 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:03,160 Wherever in the Union's 25 member states you live, 71 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:09,160 you can reach EuropeDirect by a free phone number 00800 6789 1011 72 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:17,160 or by the website http://europa.eu.int/.