Commission presents new approach to its information and communication policy

On 2 July, the Commission adopted its communication on a new strategy for its information and communication policy. The proposal foresees a more active role for the Member States to disseminate information on the Union.

The Commission’s draft proposal presents a twofold approach:

• Improving co-ordination between the Institutions and the Member States at national, regional and local level so that the provision of information and the formulation and dissemination of messages on priority issues are more coherent and focused on the end user, the European public;
• Establishing a voluntary working partnership with the Member States, fostering genuine synergy between their structures and know-how and the activities of the European Union.

Several elements are included in this new strategy:

• a profound change of information culture in all institutions;
• a framework of consistent and easy to understand messages, pointing to the basic values of what the EU provides: opportunities, prosperity and security;
• targeted communication with opinion multiplicators and with the general public;
• “co-responsibilisation” of the Member States;
• opinion leaders in all Member States (“personnalités-relais”), who could concretise and visualise the EU’s existence and goals towards the citizens;
• better use of the Eurobarometer and more opinion polls in the Member States, preventing duplication and looking for more synergies and better information.

The main instrument steering the new information policy will be the already existing Inter-Institutional Group on Information (IGI), a joint working group with members from the Commission, the Parliament and the Council. This body would adopt the priorities for the future information activities and review progress on a regular basis. It meets at least twice a year.

On the basis of the information themes defined by the IGI, the Commission will then propose a corpus of key messages, that it will test with “focus groups” in the Member States. These focus groups will consist of “citizens-users”, not of governmental representatives.

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