Brussels, 21/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - The College of 25 Commissioner will hold a seminar in the Berlaymont building this Saturday 23 April on the Commission's future communication strategy. Vice-President Margot Wallström, who oversees communication policy, hopes to draw new inputs from this informal exchange of views, and suggestions ahead of the finalisation of the new policy, which is to be adopted in early June (probably after the French referendum on the Constitution).
Ms Wallström's services have prepared a draft strategy which is still based largely on three principles to steer the Commission's future actions in the field of information and communication: -listening to the citizens and stakeholders more and better, as they should have more to do with the decision-making process, via communication and consultation. “Communication is not a one-way street, it is dialogue. The aim cannot be just for the institutions to inform the citizens, but also for the citizens to express their opinions”, Ms Wallström's services explained to EUROPE on Thursday; providing the citizens with better explanations of the EU's policies. “We should communicate the effects of an EU policy or decision on everyday lives, rather than overload people with overly technical information”, he said; -reaching the citizens better, by targeting the audiences better and by developing contact and “going local”. “Communication involves adapting messages and matching national and local concerns instead of a one-size-fits-all approach”, Ms Wallström's spokesperson stressed.
In order to achieve these objectives, Ms Wallström plans a series of concrete measures, some of which are certain to be discussed at the Commission's seminar on Saturday. In order to get closer to the citizens and to decentralise information, the role of the Commission's representations to the Member States must be boosted. “In concrete, this means that they should be released from various superfluous bureaucratic duties so they can devote more time to information and communication”, the spokesperson explained. External representations should seek more direct contact, not only with the citizens, but also with local media. “The accredited press corps in Brussels is obviously vital to communicate Europe to the citizens, but it can never replace the indispensable contact with thousands of local or specialised press bodies in the various Member States”.
In order to get closer to the citizens, the Commission may also decide to hold some of its weekly meetings outside Brussels and Strasbourg, in other Member States, Ms Wallström suggests (which is already done at the start of each new Presidency of the Council: Ed). Using simple language which everyone can understand rather than talking in “Eurocratic language” will also play an essential part in explaining Europe to the citizens. This gave Ms Wallström the idea to accompany each new Commission legislative proposal with a coversheet which explains to the citizens in clear and simple language why this new piece of legislation is considered necessary and what impact it will have on their everyday life.
Another idea Ms Wallström is currently toying with is that of organising specialist competitions to recruit communication experts to the Commission. “We have competitions for lawyers, economists and all kinds of other specialists, but we have no recruitment competition for information and communication experts. We need greater professionalism and skill in this field also. The idea of competitions is worthy of further discussion”, explained an official close to the dossier. Ms Wallström also hopes to derive greater benefit from the “fantastic resources” available to the Community institutions in terms of communication technologies, such as the “Europa” website, the Europe By Satellite (EBS) televised services or cooperation with Euronews. The “Europe Direct” telephone service, which allows citizens to get answers (in their own language) to all the questions they may have about the EU, should also be used more, especially in the new Member States. Greater coordination of policies and information activities within the Commission is also needed (“communication must be embedded in all our policies, from the word go”), but also between the various European institutions.