Strasbourg, 16/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - Parliament has decided to make itself more accessible to young people. With this in mind, and on the initiative of its Information Directorate General and public relations, fully supported by President Pat Cox, the Parliament has published a cartoon book called "Troubled Waters", which follows the work of a young MEP at the Parliament's environment committee.
Almost 1.25 million copies of this cartoon book will be freely available at "info points" in major cities in the EU and translated into all the languages of the Community (although they are only presently available in French and English), as well as the languages of the candidate countries. As well as being a learning tool, which contains definitions and explanations on how Parliament and its decision-making process works, it sets the scene of intrigue by focusing on a chemical company. By inventing an attractive story as its focus, the authors could have apparently caused much consternation to the CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council, given the image it may have given to the sector. This explains why Pat Cox sent a letter to CEFIC Director General explaining that the publication was not targeting this sector or any other particular company or individual. Mr Cox also guarantees that each future copy will be accompanied by a note explaining that the story is entirely fictional, although the procedures described totally reflect reality and that a note bearing that wording would be distributed at the same time as the copies of the book which have already been printed.