Regions and cities rethink EU communication strategy
More money for local EU communications. More dialogues with the citizens on Europe at city and region level. A better coordination of the branding strategies of the EU institutions. Those and many other recommendations are topic of an upcoming CoR opinion on "Reconnecting Europe with its citizens". At the occasion of EuroPCom, the 5th European Conference on Public Communication, over 700 communication professionals will discuss the ideas and share their views on the future information and participation strategy of the EU.
In the aftermath of the last European elections and at the start of a new EU legislature, the Committee of the Regions is preparing an own-initiative opinion on the future communication approach for the EU and its institutions. The opinion "Reconnecting Europe with its citizens: more and better communication at local level" was drafted by Christophe Rouillon (FR/PES) and discussed at the CIVEX Commission meeting on 22-23 September in Brindisi. The draft opinion underlines the need to rethink the EU communication approach: more interaction with and among the citizens, a higher involvement of local and regional politicians and public communicators, a greater decentralisation of the EU communication budget and actions, and a better coordination among the communication services of the different EU institutions.
The future EU communication strategy will be one of the main topics of the 5th edition of EuroPCom, the major annual event on EU public communication, which will take place on 15 and 16 October in Brussels. More than 60 politicians and expert speakers have confirmed their participation at the conference, among them Herman Van Rompuy (President of the European Council), Sandro Gozi (Italian State Secretary for Europe), Michel Lebrun (President of the Committee of the Regions), Jacques Séguéla (founding father of the French advertising industry), Dietmar Dahmen (advertising expert) and Joakim Jardenberg (internet adviser and business angel).
The EuroPCom conference is an initiative of the Committee of the Regions, in partnership with the European Parliament, the Italian EU Presidency 2014, the Council of the EU, the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee. Communication and government strategy experts from all levels of government can register for the event until 6 October 2014.
Conference programme, practical information and online registration: