Only 15 % of the population in Denmark has heard about EU co-founded projects in their region. This means the Danes by far are the EU-citizens with lowest awareness of these local projects even though they are aimed to improve the areas in which they live.
This was one of the points made by Marc Lemaitre, Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy, when he presented conclusions from the EU-Commission’s survey Citizens' awareness and perception of EU Regional policy from June 2019 during the opening session of the European Week of Regions and Cities this Monday.
“Cohesion policy is intended to reduce inequalities between European regions. Cohesion policy is more needed than ever”, he explained and then underlined: “Media outlets are the key to provide better knowledge on cohesion policies and to increase awareness among European citizens on projects funded by the structural funds and cohesion funds”.
Marc Lemaitre’s questions the role of Danish Media outlets in providing knowledge on EU co-founded projects in Danish regions – or, maybe more accurately - not providing knowledge on EU co-founded projects in Danish regions.
And exactly the theme of local awareness-building was on the agenda during the Bringing Europe closer to citizens-session on Tuesday evening. Representatives from Spain, Italy, Belgium and Greece presented were gathered to present their individual takes on how to communicate in order to bring Europe closer to its citizens. Among the presenters were Jorge Núñez Ferrer, a senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Belgium. He began with a call for EU-projects being more visible:
“One of the biggest problems we face is the lack of knowledge on the European Union. The people want answers. The people need answers. The people demand answers. They worry about the financial crisis. They worry about migration. They worry about climate change. Therefore, we need to communicate more and better. In many cases, we are present, but our role is not visible enough. We need to be visible, especially in regard to the hottest topics at the moments such as climate change and unemployment”.
Eirini Giannara, a journalist & International Project Coordinator from the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation at ERT located in Greece, followed up on Jorge Núñez Ferrer’s call for more visibility by putting forward her suggestions for three ways to strengthen the messages and broaden the audience:
“Firstly, we must designate columns in newspapers and online articles to discussing EU Cohesion Policy and the related projects from different angles. Secondly, we must have a stronger social media presence, and thirdly, we must create a stronger and more effective coordination between the EU communication strategy and national policy.”
Now it’s just up to Danish Media – as well as media outlets from the rest of Europe - to use Eirini Giannara’s advice if they intend to increase awareness on regional EU-projects.
Written by: Ida Elmdal Thagesen (Denmark)
Edited by: Iskra Tsankova (Bulgaria)
