V.1.

Europe Direct services

V.1.1. Europe Direct Contact Centre

EDICs have a privileged access to the services of the Europe Direct Contact Centre (EDCC).
The Europe Direct Contact Centre (EDCC) is a service which helps citizens find answers to
their questions about the European Union. EDCC provides direct responses in the 23 official
languages (24 with the accession of Croatia) to general enquiries and, in case of more detailed
questions, signposts to the best source of information and advice at EU, national, regional and
local levels.

When EDICs receive a question from a citizen they cannot answer, they may contact EDCC.
The web-submit form to be used by EDICs when contacting the EDCC is available at:
http://edic.edcc.eu/. When using it, EDICs should clearly identify themselves as EDICs. In
parallel, they should send a holding reply to the citizen. The EDCC will send the answer to
the e-mail address provided through the web-submit form. It will usually reply to the citizen
within 3 working days. Sometimes, the question has to be sent to an in-house expert for input.
In this case, replies will take longer, although no more than 3 weeks.

As the use of this web form is reserved for EDICs, the address should not be transmitted to
citizens. Citizens should use the EDCC standard web-submit form available at:
http://europa.eu/europedirect/write_to_us/mailbox/index_en.htm).

The EDCC is accessible by telephone or electronic mail from Monday-Friday 09h00-18h30

CET. More information about the Europe Direct Contact Centre is available on the Europa
website1.

EDICs should promote the EDCC on their website and in their e-mail signature indicating
"Questions about the EU? ….."

The EDIC's privacy policy should be explained on the EDICs' website when handling request
from citizens. This privacy statement can be based on the EDCC's privacy statement
(http://europa.eu/europedirect/data_protection/index_en.htm). If an EDIC has already a
privacy statement, it should check that it is in line (for the purposes of handling information
enquiries) with the EDCC one.

1
http://ec.europa.eu/europedirect/call_us/how_it_works/index_en.htm