” “The meeting of the Information Centres in the "Europe direct" network is taking place in Bologna today and tomorrow. They are located in the countries of South Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta and Slovenia. As intermediary between the European Union and its citizens, Europe Direct "allows the citizens to obtain information, consultancies, assistance and answers to questions about institutions, legislation, policies, programmes and the loan opportunities from the European Union". Furthermore, it takes care of "promoting public debate and the media’s interest in the European Union and its policies; collaborating with schools and the civil society to sensitize citizens in relation to subjects such as citizenship and European unification; allowing European institutions to improve information diffusion; offering citizens the opportunity to communicate with European institutions". "One of the absolute priorities, pointed out Pier Virgilio Dastoli, director of the Italian Agency of the European Commission, at the beginning of the work, is generating synergy between the different centres of Europe Direct, whose feedback about the tendencies of public opinions is crucial in the carrying out of the policies of the Commission". In particular, Dastoli pointed out how the network became part of the "go-local" perspective, which means "going towards the most peripheral dimension to raise the direct interests of the European citizens". ” “
