The services of general interest (SGI) envisage those services able to
respond the obligations derived from the public interest criterion, being usually
divided into two categories, which refer to services of general economic interest and
social services of general interest. This paper proposes an inquiry into the main
characteristics of the SGI in Romania at national and territorial level, with a
particular focus on the North-East region. More precisely, it aims to investigate the
consumers’ perception on quality of the existent SGI in the North-East region. The
methodology mainly focuses on a questionnaire designed within the ESPON project
the paper is based on, for all envisaged regions in the participant countries. The
results show that in general respondents have a positive perception on the quality of
SGI in the North-East region. For example, in general, the quality of the electricity
network, of the water supply network, of the mobile phone (network coverage), of
Internet (broadband), of the services provided by the local public administration, by
pharmacies, by social care, by kindergarten/pre-school, by primary school, by posts,
by libraries is considered to be good. However, there are also SGI considered neither
good nor bad, in relation to their quality; it is, in general, the case of the local and
main roads, of the waste disposal, and of the telephone network (fixed line). Finally,
the paper identifies future challenges related to the SGI at national and territorial
level, offering useful suggestions to the policy-makers in this field.