EU sets communication priorities for 2009

The European institutions are close to agreeing on three major subjects that they wish to build on next year to reach out to EU citizens. These are the fight against climate change, the June 2009 European elections and significant anniversaries of the reunited Europe. 1 May 2009 marks five years since the 2004 enlargement, while 9 November 2009 sees the twenty-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A declaration entitled ‘Communicating Europe in partnership’ was signed on 22 October in Strasbourg by European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, Commission President José Manuel Barroso and French State Secretary for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet, on behalf of the Council. 

The text does not specifically define the priorities for 2009, stating only that the three institutions will identify “a limited number of communication priorities” each year. Nevetheless, Joe Hennon, spokesperson for Margot Wallström, the commissioner responsible for communication policy, told EURACTIV that the three priorities were almost agreed. The deal is expected to be finalised at a meeting in the European Parliament in November. 

As simple as it may appear at first glance, EU countries are in fact reluctant to have communication priorities imposed on them by the European institutions, and the institutions themselves must fight hard to have the final say. This is why the document signed in Strasbourg is seen as a breakthrough, however modest it may seem in its scope. 

An inter-institutional ‘Group on Information’ will follow up on progress made, holding sessions twice a year. It will be co-chaired by Parliament, Council and Commission representatives, with the participation of the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee as observers. Spanish MEP Alejo Vidal-Quadras currently represents the Parliament, while his Commission counterpart is Margot Wallström. 

Avoiding duplication 

“We will continue to do our thing,” Hennon said, speaking of communication projects sponsored by the Commission, such as a European TV network to produce regular programmes dedicated to EU affairs in most of the Union’s languages. He added that the Parliament would continue to do “its thing” too, noting that “the point of disagreeing is not to have to agree on everything, because otherwise we won’t get anything done,” he explained. 

More effort will be dedicated to avoiding duplication, Wallström’s spokesperson added. Recently, the Parliament and the Commission have organised conferences on climate change in the same week in the same country, with both teams of organisers unaware of the other institution’s initiative, he said. 

Communicating Europe in Ireland 

The Commission expects Ireland to engage in “some kind of partnership” in communicating Europe. Three countries, namely Hungary, Slovenia and Germany, have signed such partnership agreements already, and in the near future such cooperation could focus on the European elections, Hennon revealed. As for the communication effort in the context of a possible Lisbon Treaty revote, he said the EU executive would expect Ireland to set out the areas in which they thought such cooperation would be useful. 

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