EURACTIV survey: Corporate EU communication gains momentum

A recent EURACTIV survey reveals that EU policy communication is increasingly important for business. The study also demonstrates the crucial importance for corporate communication of using personal contacts, regularly updated websites and position papers.

Corporate EU policy communication is increasingly important. More than a third of respondents said that they expected a budget increase, while only 4% expected a decrease. The results show that resources are primarily allocated to corporate communication in the European headquarters rather than in EU policy communication in Brussels.

Personal contacts at meetings and networking events, updated websites and position papers are still the preferred means of communication, the survey found, confirming previous findings (see EURACTIV 26/06/06).

Moreover, for most corporate representatives, membership of associations (38%) and think-tanks (9%) are seen as more important than using consultants (9%) as a means of achieving public affairs objectives.

Another striking fact is that the majority of businesses work in English, despite this being the second language of most of them. Media and government representatives, on the other hand, typically tend to use their mother tongue: an interesting mismatch.

Looking at new communication tools, corporate representatives see blogs as a future opportunity to engage with citizens and stakeholders, even if online syndication is the most-used tool (see example EURACTIV Live Headlines).

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