Short Policy Recommendations Report
Creators: name: Miconi, Andrea
name: Grassmuck, Volker
name: Thomass, Barbara
name: Boshnakova, Dessislava
name: Ingebretsen Carlson, Jim
name: Lupíañez-Villanueva, Francisco
name: Biltereyest, Daniël
name: Lagrange, Babette
name: Van Bauwel, Sofie
name: Archontaki, Ioanna
name: Giannouli, Iliana
name: Karadimitriou, Achilleas
name: Papathanassopoulos, Stylianos
name: Álvares, Cláudia
name: Crespo, Miguel
name: Moreno, José
name: Üzelgün, Mehmet Ali
name: Zollo, Fabiana
name: Carpentier, Nico
name: Doudaki, Vaia
name: Hroch, Miloš
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: Deliverable 5.7 results from the cooperation among all partners, and it is expected to take together the evidence-based recommendations, as they can be inferred from the different research tasks. As several topics are transversal to the Work-package organization (i.e., movie circulation in WP1 and WP3; or social media discourse in WP2 and WP4), we will not follow the WP order, while grouping the recommendations into thematic clusters.

At the methodological level, we have followed a multi-step procedure, based on the participatory approach that has inspired the whole project, starting with the drawing of the semantic map of Europeanness and Europeanization, for WP1.

Firstly, WP leaders and task leaders provided a document about the operationalization of the respective outcomes. A template has been made available by the Coordinator, which is leading this task, albeit such template could not apply to the sections guided by peculiar methodologies – i.e., the regulation task and the Delphi+ workshops. Reports have been provided: for Cluster 1, by Volker Grassmuck and Barbara Thomass (HBI), and by Stylianos Papathanassopoulos (NKUA); for Cluster 2, by Ioanna Archontaki, Iliana Giannouli, Achilleas Karadimitriou and Stylianos Papathanassopoulos (NKUA), and by Volker Grassmuck and Barbara Thomass (HBI); for Cluster 3, by Ioanna Archontaki, Iliana Giannouli, Achilleas Karadimitriou, and Stylianos Papathanassopolous (NKUA), by Daniël Biltereyst (UGent), and by Dessislava Boshnakova (NBU); for Cluster 4, by Cláudia Álvares, Miguel Crespo, José Moreno and Mehmet Ali Üzelgün (ISCTE-IUL), by Nico Carpentier, Vaia Doudaki, and Miloš Hroch (CU), by Jim Ingebretsen Carlson and Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (UOC), by  Babette Lagrange and Sofie Van Bauwel (UGent), and by Fabiana Zollo (UniVe).

Secondly, the Coordinator – after a synoptic reading of both deliverables and additional notes, drew a first list of policy recommendations, organized into five thematic areas, subsequently reduced to four, based on the partners’ feedback. Then we moved to the proper validation step, with all partners involved in the review, comment and integration of the recommendations, both online on a shared document, and by means of extensive in-presence discussions, which took place during the Lisbon plenary meeting, in November 2023; and during the final WP5 meeting in Prague, in January 2024. After collecting the feedback from the Consortium, the Coordinator individually contacted the authors of the recommendations for the fine tuning and the final adjustments.

An additional taskforce has been necessary in the case of a specific topic – the platformization of Public Service Media and the updating of the Amsterdam Protocol – with the participation of Volker Grassmuck and Barbara Thomass (HBI), Stylianos Papathanassopoulos (NKUA), and Andrea Miconi (IULM). Based on the above remarks and indications, a new version of the recommendation deliverable has been eventually drawn by the Coordinator and submitted to the approval of the Steering Committee, on mid-February 2024.

The style of the report, in its turn, reflects the variety of authors and approaches from which it results: some sections are more academic than others; in some cases, a direct use of scientific bibliography is made, while in other cases the references point to the EUMEPLAT deliverables. It is our belief, in the end, that such a participatory method – albeit being time consuming, as expected – has proved to be particularly effective for giving voice to the different identities and positions represented in the EUMEPLAT Consortium.

The recommendations have been presented during the EUMEPLAT final event, organized by UNIMED in Brussels on February 27, 2024, in two sessions respectively chaired by Fabiana Zollo (UniVe) and Vaia Doudaki (CU). Dessislava Boshnakova (NBU), Stylianos Papathanassopoulos (NKUA) and Barbara Thomass (HBI) also participated as main speakers. We thank the respondents which joined the event and provided their feedback to our proposals.