Europe’s single phone number for citizens has now answered 100 000 calls this year

The 100 000th question was asked by Ms Isabel Zunino from Barcelona, who is visiting the Europe Direct Contact Centre today and meeting the Commission’s Director-General for Communication, Ms Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen. Ms. Zunino works for a food delivery company and was interested in knowing more about the EU rules on single-use plastics. The Europe Direct Contact Centre is an important channel for the Commission to listen to and engage with citizens. Established in 2000 and based in Brussels, the Contact Centre answers citizens’ questions about the European Union in any of the 24 official languages by phone or online. The annual number of questions will have grown by more than 10% between 2018 and 2019 and is expected to reach more than 120 000 by the end of December. Most notably, the expected number of Brexit-related questions in 2019 (around 5 000) will be approximately 4 times higher than in 2018. You will find more information here.