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Europe Direct: Questions about Europe
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"Europe? Sure, what phone number?" the head of American diplomacy, Henry Kissinger, used to quip. Well, from now on, Europe does have its own number. To talk to it, all you have to do is dial 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11. It’s EUROPE DIRECT, a single, free telephone number that can be accessed from anywhere in the 25 member States. This service answers questions that any European citizen might have about the European Union, whether they relate to employment and mobility, how the European institutions work or the future of the EU, including the constitution. Nearly 80 000 people called it in 2004 through 3 channels: telephone, mail and assistance via the Internet. This initiative is helping to achieve the objectives set by Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström, to close the gap between the citizens and the European institutions. The operators on the EUROPE DIRECT service panel, who, day after day, listen to and answer any questions the citizens may have about the European Union, already know a lot about the concerns of Europeans. What questions do the citizens ask most frequently? What useful links do the operators have in order to find the right answer or good advice, covering all the fields that extend to 80 000 pages of European legislation? And, finally, who are those people at the other end of the line, the 32 operators from 25 member countries, each speaking at least 3 languages? A look behind the scenes at EUROPE DIRECT, the unique, free service that’s always ready to listen to 450 million citizens.
Brussels, the working day begins for Magdalena Pekoszka, an operator at the helpline, EuropeDirect.
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For the next eight hours, she'll listen to European citizens and answer their questions
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about the European Union.
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She's been working here for eight months and now knows quite a bit about their concerns.
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The standard questions are the three biggest groups,
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that is, moving to another country in the European Union in order to find a job,
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also the notification of diplomas in other countries of the European Union,
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that this is also related to it, and obtaining funds from the European Union.
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This is a large group of questions.
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Employment and mobility.
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These then are the top priorities for Europeans when they contact EuropeDirect.
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This morning as well, Magdalena is talking with one of her Polish compatriots,
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who wants to know about the formalities involved in getting a job in Spain.
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OK, thank you.
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EuropeDirect is an initiative of the European Commission.
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The service is accessible in the 25 member states via one single free phone number and via the Internet.
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More than 80,000 people contacted the service in 2004.
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To answer questions in all these areas with the same high level of quality,
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the 32 operators of EuropeDirect have lots of different tools at their disposal.
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Our first and foremost tool is our knowledge base.
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We have a team of people working on this,
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and they feed this knowledge base constantly with the most important topics.
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Then, of course, we have a full-time information officer who is part of our team,
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and once a week she is going to give updates to the agents,
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as well as sending ad hoc emails on really rather urgent and important matters or events that happen.
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EuropeDirect's other strength is its operators, who come from all the Union's 25 member states.
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Afternoon team member Nikos Noulas is Greek.
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He has been working for the service for two years and can therefore easily describe the typical operator.
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Most of the colleagues who work at EuropeDirect have studies in political science,
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have studies in European institutions,
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and they are more interested in working at European institutions,
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so EuropeDirect is a challenge for them, because it is like a big school, I would say.
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Like all his colleagues, Nikos speaks at least three languages, in his case Greek, French and English.
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It is in one of these languages that European citizens will contact him.
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Certain topics are more popular, as shown by the ranking of the most frequently asked questions.
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In addition to employment and mobility, people essentially want to know about the way the European institutions work
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and about the future of Europe, including the Constitution.
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Nikos again.
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We have questions that are very simple.
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For example, I would like the details of a certain committee or someone who works in the committee.
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We have questions about people who want to work at European institutions and want to have a career,
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and we also have many questions about the European Constitution.
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For example, which countries will have a referendum.
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Indeed, the very next day our two operators are attending an information session
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about the various referenda on the Constitution.
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EuropeDirect's information officer discusses the ins and outs of this hot topic.
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In this way, the entire team will be enabled to provide quality information to citizens.
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The other countries that will hold the referendum are Czech Republic, Ireland and Portugal.
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Then there will be also consultative referendum in other countries like Luxembourg, Netherlands and UK.
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At the table in this meeting room, we also find Jan-Erik Stahlsboe.
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He is Swedish and is one of the people responsible for the quality of responses given by EuropeDirect.
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Together with three colleagues, he corrects junior operators' emails.
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It must be a relevant answer to the question that the citizens have,
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and we as correctors ensure that this is the case.
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Jan-Erik's job also involves making sure that the citizens receive the very best service,
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particularly when the questions are very specific, as happens frequently at EuropeDirect,
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especially in the area of enterprise policy.
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We cannot answer just about everything.
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For instance, if you have someone that needs funding for business,
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we must refer them to another network,
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because we don't have the specifics of the funding of this region that this person is asking about.
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EuropeDirect has three response channels, the telephone, email and web assistance,
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a service which could be compared to a chatroom.
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The operator responds to the questioner on the Internet in real time.
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This is what Belgian-Italian operator Claudio Agace does in an average of 25 sessions a day.
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In 2004, 7% of enquiries came via web assistant,
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41% by email and 52% by telephone.
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In a 12-month period, EuropeDirect operators answered some 80,000 questions
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in the 20 official languages of the European Union, 60% more than in 2003.
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Wherever in the Union's 25 member states you live,
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you can reach EuropeDirect by a free phone number 00800 6789 1011
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or by the website http://europa.eu.int/.
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- Idioma/s:
- Niveles educativos:
- ▼ Mostrar / ocultar niveles
- Nivel Intermedio
- Autor/es:
- The European Union
- Subido por:
- EducaMadrid
- Licencia:
- Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
- Visualizaciones:
- 1155
- Fecha:
- 13 de julio de 2007 - 10:03
- Visibilidad:
- Público
- Enlace Relacionado:
- European Commission
- Duración:
- 07′ 17″
- Relación de aspecto:
- 4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
- Resolución:
- 448x336 píxeles
- Tamaño:
- 37.20 MBytes
