Getting closer to its citizens

New languages immediately understandable, transparency, free access to documentation. Also a wider web use, information campaigns, decentralization, open institutional palaces in Brussels and Strasburg. The European Union has been trying to “get closer” to its citizens: the number of initiatives is increasing, always trying to find new and more effective ones. The 27-countries Assembly, the only EU body elected with universal suffrage, is in the front line of this “challenge”. Sir talks about it with Francesca Ratti , European Parliament Director-General for Information. We often talk about the EU’s “democracy deficit”, the need for a direct, constant and participating relationship to bridge the gap between the Union and its citizens. Do you consider it a “mission impossible”? What is the Euro-parliament doing? “I don’t consider it a mission impossible, but rather a titanic effort. We must disseminate the parliamentary activity to 500 million people, spread in 27 countries with 23 official languages. Our messages must consider different cultures, traditions, vocabularies and political ideas. This is the Europe of diversity. The information we want to disseminate is the same but must be tailored to the different socio-cultural realities of the various countries and sometimes even regions.”Parliamentary sessions, Commissions’ meetings, directives, regulations, budget. Activities and statements of the President and Members of European Parliament. And much more. There are plenty of topics. What is the ultimate goal of the Directorate-General you are in charge of ?“Our goal has always been the same: demonstrate how important European Parliament’s decisions are in the citizens’ every day life. In the last fifty years this institution has increased its legislative power, that it today shares with the Council. This increase has also led to stronger political weight and visibility within the EU. Our task now is to convince the citizens that we are taking fundamental decisions in different sectors: transport, labor, consumer protection, environment, healthcare, culture, research, grants to small and medium size enterprises.How did you organize yourselves for this “battle”?“We have a central office for the Parliament’s headquarter of Brussels and Strasbourg and a series of decentralized offices in all the Member States. I deem decentralization essential, because it enables the Assembly to be in close contact with the citizens. This is exactly what we are aiming to do: be in touch with our citizens. I think this strategy is giving good results, even if we still have a long way to go.” Are the means and funding enough?“I don’t think there are enough funds to do our best in the great Europe. In an image-centered society information is shared mainly on the screen: televisions, computers and even cell-phones. Audiovisual equipments are expensive and so are images, even more so if we must have comments in 23 different languages! One thing is however clear: The European Parliament is beating on multilingualism, considering it an essential tool to reach everybody”.As far as screens are concerned, the news of a EU parliament web tv has been around for a while. How is the project doing?“The project is well underway. I can anticipate that we will be on line by the end of August. It will be a television through the internet, 24 hours a day. We will have four television channels, that will broadcast many programs from which the citizen can choose”.Four channels?“Yes. The first one will broadcast political and legislative activities and debates. Another one will let citizens have their say through interactive programs, forums with members of parliament. The third channel will be focused on youngsters, schools and teachers. This proposal has been very successful: especially youngsters from 12 to 18 years old are curious and willing to participate. We would like work in close contact with them, the Europeans of the future. We will then have an archive channel with all documents and various images of the history of today and the past. It will broadcast interviews of the founding fathers and heads of state. We are hoping to make ad hoc services for the current Pope’s visit. We also think the programs can be subtitled in the official languages: another way to be closer to our citizen, providing the opportunity of learning different languages”. How are the Member States reacting? Is there awareness at a national level of the importance of providing clear and effective information from the European institutions, obviously in similar ways to those of other mass media?“On the whole the EU started a language and communication tools modernization process. This cannot however be successful without the support of governments, national mass media and also the education environment. When some national leader blame EU policies of their own inability, the credibility of the common institutions is severely struck. All inconvenient issues are blamed on the EU: by so doing we don’t create a European spirit nor strengthen EU citizenship”. You cited education environments.“Of course. National and European citizens’ training starts from elementary school. I think we should also include civics or history lessons on European integration. The same should be done in high-school during law classes: it would be a wonderful opportunity to teach something about the EU institutions, their democratic legitimacy, how they work for the citizens’ well-being. There still are however some hurdles”.Which ones?“The lack of books that broadly talk about Europe”.The European Parliament elections will be held next year. A recent Euro-barometer survey revealed that citizens had a positive image of the Euro-chamber, but don’t much about it. Do you have a broad information campaign in mind ?“The Euro-barometer launched both worrisome and paradoxical signals. People want the Parliament to play a more important role within the EU, but don’t know its exact powers. This clearly shows we have a lot of work to due. We have started working on the 2009 elections for quite sometime. We set out specific campaigns that will be launched as soon as the EU Council will decide the election date. We are working on effective slogans, aiming at decentralization initiatives, youngsters and family multiplier effect. The strongest message will be to democratically participate through the right to vote. We are also preparing brochures and reports to broadcast online, that summarize the legislation, founded once again on the concrete decisions taken by the Parliament”.But there is something new. A Welcome center for Brussels’ visitors“True. The basic idea is that the visits to the institutions, the hemicycle access and the opportunity to visit the Members of Parliament and see them working will give a different view of the Parliament and EU. In fact, every year 350 thousand people visit Brussels and 200 thousand Strasbourg. The new center that I hope will be inaugurated before the elections, is going to be open 7 days a week, and have interactive walkthroughs, material, publications and games to discover the EU, its history, its protagonists of yesterday and today, the steps made by the institutive Treaties until the Lisbon Treaty and the Parliament’s decisions. Opening the doors to our citizens will be another way to strengthen our common house”. SCHEDA The European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Information, headed by the Italian Francesca Ratti, works as an “intermediary” with the citizens, providing information on the institutional activities, the role assigned by the Treaties to the Assembly, and resolutions. The D-G is in charge of the press service and European Parliament audiovisual sector, the web site ( www.europarl.europa.eu , full of continuously updated news and documents), information offices in all the Member States and relations with citizens (events, visits and seminars). Many information campaigns aimed at the citizens, some more successful than others. Approximately 600 Parliamentary officials work in the Brussels headquarter and in peripheral offices: not many considering the 27 Member States and 500 million citizens. Funds allocated in 2008 to information were equal to 80 million euros: 16 cents per citizen. 15 million euros more will be added for the 2009 election campaign. There is also an inter-institutional information cooperation in the EU: a coordination group that includes the Parliament, the Commission, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee, and the Region’s Committee, headed by the Swedish Communication Commissioner Margot Wallstrom and of the Parliament’s vice-president, the Spanish Alejo Vidal-Quadras.