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Europe Direct is a European information network designated by the European Commission. The target group is all citizens of the European Union.
Europe Direct [1] includes EUROPE DIRECT Centres, European Documentation Centres (EDC), the EU Team EUROPE DIRECT speakers bureau and the call centre Europe Direct Contact Centre. [2] The network was created in 2005 and restructured in February 2009. [3]
All European Direct offers are free of charge. Team Europe may require travel costs and a fee.
The main aim of Europe Direct is to provide European citizens with general information on the European Union. Other aims include the answering of questions on political activities of the European Union and promoting European integration. Advice and practical tips on rights entitled to Union citizens are provided. [4]
Inquiries to the Europe Direct Contact Centre, in any of the current 24 official languages, are processed in a central contact point and answered in the same language. [4] The customer service staff must be fluent in at least three languages and have a university degree.
Europe Direct support is available via telephone (free of charge within the EU and on a uniform number), e-mail or web-chat. [5] The EU-wide network of 424 EUROPE DIRECT centres [6] (including 7 in Ireland, 3 in Malta and one in Curaçao (launched in May 2021) [2] ) are open to the public. The current generation of EUROPE DIRECT centres started its activities on 1 May 2021 and will continue until 2025. [7] These centres are run by national or private organisations under a public contract. They are co-funded by the European Commission. [8]
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255.3 km2 (1,634,469.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of nearly 447 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.
The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is a planned network of roads, railways, airports and water infrastructure in the European Union. The TEN-T network is part of a wider system of Trans-European Networks (TENs), including a telecommunications network (eTEN) and a proposed energy network. The European Commission adopted the first action plans on trans-European networks in 1990.
The Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, formerly known as the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office, is the European Commission's department for overseas humanitarian aid and for civil protection. It aims to save and preserve life, prevent and alleviate human suffering and safeguard the integrity and dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises. Since September 2019, Janez Lenarčič is serving as Commissioner for Crisis Management in the Von der Leyen Commission.
European Union culture policies aim to address and promote the cultural dimension of European integration through relevant legislation and government funding. These policies support the development of cultural activity, education or research conducted by private companies, NGO's and individual initiatives based in the EU working in the fields of cinema and audiovisual, publishing, music and crafts.
In the European Union education is at the responsibility of its Member States and their Ministries of education that they have; in such, the European Union institutions play only a supporting and overseeing role. According to Art. 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Community
shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States, through actions such as promoting the mobility of citizens, designing joint study programmes, establishing networks, exchanging information or teaching languages of the European Union. The Treaty also contains a commitment to promote life-long learning for all citizens of the Union.
The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity – self-designation ENISA from the abbreviation of its original name – is an agency of the European Union. It is fully operational since September 1, 2005. The Agency is located in Athens, Greece and has a second office in Heraklion, Greece.
SAID@BEN@CHELHA@MILIR DIR212654659370
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is a set of major research fellowships created by the European Union/European Commission to support research in the European Research Area (ERA). The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are among Europe's most competitive and prestigious research and innovation fellowships.
The Enterprise Europe Network provides support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions. Co-funded by the European Union's COSME and Horizon 2020 programmes, the Network's aim is to help businesses innovate and grow internationally.
The Interactive Policy Making, or IPM, is an online opinion poll management system launched in 2001, which is used to gather the opinion of European Union citizens and entreprises regarding policy development The software is part of the Interactive Policy Making Initiative and is made of various modules which assist in the creation of such questionnaires - including a creation, translation, test, launch and analysis module.
The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling "EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies", introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. The initiative enables one million citizens of the European Union, who are nationals of at least seven member states, to call directly on the European Commission to propose a legal act in an area where the member states have conferred powers onto the EU level. This right to request the commission to initiate a legislative proposal puts citizens on the same footing as the European Parliament and the European Council, who enjoy this right according to Articles 225 and 241 TFEU, respectively. The commission holds the right of initiative in the EU. The first registered ECI, Fraternité 2020, was initiated on 9 May 2012, although the first submitted ECI was One Single Tariff.
A harmonised service of social value is a type of freephone service available in the European Union and in some non-EU countries, which answers a specific social need, in particular which contributes to the well-being or safety of citizens, or particular groups of citizens, or helps citizens in difficulty. The phone numbers and the corresponding service descriptions are managed by the European Commission and harmonised across all EU and EEA member states. Harmonised services of social value use the prefix 116, which is then followed by three digits indicating the type of service.
The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) of the European Union (EU) is a policy domain concerning home affairs and migration, justice as well as fundamental rights, developed to address the challenges posed to internal security by collateral effects of the free movement of people and goods in the absence of border controls or customs inspection throughout the Schengen Area, as well as to safeguard adherence to the common European values through ensuring that the fundamental rights of people are respected across the EU.
The European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) is an EU-wide network. There is a national contact point called European Consumer Centre (ECC) in all 27 EU Member States, as well as in Iceland and Norway. ECCs provide consumers with information about the opportunities and risks of the European Single Market and also regarding cross-border consumer topics, such as travel, various services, and the purchase of goods and services. The ECC-Net is staffed by legal experts who assist consumers free of charge to solve any dispute that may arise with enterprises based in another EU country, Norway, or Iceland. The ECCs are co-financed by the European Commission and national governments aiming to protect consumer rights and ensure that every EU citizen may take full advantage of the European Single Market. Depending on the formal structure some ECCs are hosted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governmental bodies, or independent organizations.
Environmental issue in the European Union include the environmental issues identified by the European Union as well as its constituent states. The European Union has several federal bodies which create policy and practice across the constituent states.
The Internal Market Information System (IMI) is an IT-based network that links public bodies in the European Economic Area. It was developed by the European Commission together with the Member States of the European Union to speed up cross-border administrative cooperation. IMI allows public administrations at national, regional and local level to identify their counterparts in other countries and to exchange information with them. Pre-translated questions and answers as well as machine translation make it possible for them to use their own language to communicate.
Joinup is a collaboration platform created by the European Commission. It is funded by the European Union via its Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations Programme.
Eurodesk is an international non-profit association created in 1990. It is a European network of European, national and local information centers for young people and those working with them. It offers youth information on international learning and participation opportunities and is an organisation supported by the Erasmus+ programme (2014–2020). In 2004, Eurodesk – in cooperation with the European Commission - launched the European Youth Portal.
Poland has been a member state of the European Union since 1 May 2004, with the Treaty of Accession 2003 signed on 16 April 2003 in Athens as the legal basis for Poland's accession to the EU. The actual process of integrating Poland into the EU began with Poland's application for membership in Athens on 8 April 1994, and then the confirmation of the application by all member states in Essen from 9–10 December 1994. Poland's integration into the European Union is a dynamic and continuously ongoing process.
The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) is a space agency, managing the European Union Space Programme as one of the agencies of the European Union (EU). It was initially created as the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Supervisory Authority (GSA) in 2004, reorganised into the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency in 2010, and established in its current form on May 12, 2021. EUSPA is a separate entity from the European Space Agency (ESA), although the two entities work together closely.
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