Special Eurobarometer 260: Services of general interest

The Directorate-General SANCO commissioned a poll in the twenty-five Member States of the European Union on Europeans' use of and satisfaction with services of general interest. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in people’s homes, in their national language, between May 5 and June 11, 2006. This report looks at EU consumer attitudes and beliefs relating to a number of services ranging from communication (telephony, post and internet) to the provision of energy (gas and electricity), water, public transport and banking. Three subjects in particular (internet, postal services and banking) are analyzed in more detail in separate chapters at the end of the report. These are also covered in the main part of the report to allow comparison with the other services of general interest. The report opens with questions relating to citizens’ access to a particular service. Users and, in some cases, non-users are then asked further questions as to their attitudes to price, quality of service, complaints and general beliefs as to how consumer interests are protected. The report then looks at all services reviewed by individual heading. So, for example, the chapter on access looks at EU25 citizens’ ability to benefit from the accessibility of a wide variety of services ranging from fixed-line telephones to inter-city trains, domestic gas and postal services. #####The results by volumes are distributed as follows: * Volume A: Countries * Volume AA: Groups of countries * Volume A' (AP): Trends * Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries * Volume B: EU/socio-demographics * Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics * Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: [https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer](https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer)