P6_TA(2005)0183

EU information and communication strategy

European Parliament resolution on the implementation of the European Union's information and communication strategy (2004/2238(INI))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on implementing the information and communication strategy for the European Union (COM(2004)0196),

- having regard to its resolution of 13 March 2002 on the Commission communication on a new framework for cooperation on activities concerning the information and communication policy of the European Union [1],

- having regard to its resolution of 10 April 2003 on an information and communication strategy for the European Union [2],

- having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Culture and Education and to the opinion of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (A6-0111/2005),

A. whereas the turnout at the last European elections fell in nine of the pre-enlargement EU Member States,

B. whereas in the context of the European democratic process, an essential aim of any information and communication policy must be to promote the value of active participation in politics and civil society, for example the importance of voting in elections to the European Parliament, and to inspire a sense of pride in being citizens of Europe,

C. whereas access to information about the European Union is crucial if people are to exercise true European citizenship; as the beneficiaries of European Union policy and as active participants in European democracy, citizens have the right to full and impartial information about the Union in their own language, in plain language and through easily accessible channels,

D. whereas the information and communication strategy should be based on the fundamental values of the European Union — democracy, pluralism, security, solidarity, equal opportunities, cohesion and respect for cultural diversity and fundamental human rights,

E. whereas the information and communication strategy must also actively demonstrate to citizens how belonging to the European Union brings positive benefits to them in their daily lives,

Messages and resources

1. Welcomes the fact that for the first time Parliament has been called upon to discuss the information and communication strategy for the Union before its presentation by the Commission and thus has a real possibility of influencing the final content of this strategy, instead of merely reacting to it; considers this a very positive step in the deepening of its responsibilities as regards democratic control of the activities of the Commission;

2. Stresses that the object of the information and communication strategy should primarily be to keep the Union's citizens continually and properly informed about the functioning of the Union's Institutions in order to develop their knowledge, concern and participation in the Union's affairs and bring them closer to the Union;

3. Considers it essential to send European citizens a strong message encouraging European commitment and a feeling of identification with the European project;

4. Considers it necessary to pay greater attention to the content of the messages put out, so as to stimulate the interest of citizens by tackling their concerns;

5. Stresses the need to establish a decentralised information system to make it easier to reach specific groups which should be targeted with individually tailored messages in all cases;

6. Is convinced that information and communication policy will not be effective until knowledge of the EU and its institutions is included as a subject in the Member States' school curricula; universities should also be called upon to be proactive in spreading and fostering common European values;

7. Stresses the importance of making greater use of communications media with the technological capacity to reach the homes of all European citizens, such as television, radio and the Internet;

8. Believes that there is further scope for the use of both webstreaming and radio and that these should be explored in the context of the information and communication strategy;

9. Believes that serious consideration should be given to the possibility of holding debates on European policy in the parliaments with legislative responsibility, with the active participation of MEPs, so as to give communication media the opportunity to follow more closely debates which are usually held in the European Parliament;

10. Considers that the institutions should, in accordance with the rules laid down by the Financial Regulation, reach agreements with companies producing audiovisual programmes that are able to devise drama series, competitions, films, news reports and in general all kinds of high-quality and accessible programmes which appeal to popular taste and serve to promote the idea and values of Europe;

11. Welcomes the recent conclusion of a new contract with Euronews and believes that Euronews represents a quality service providing value for money;

12. Believes that consideration should be given to using certain Community programmes, for example Media, Culture, Youth or Education, in connection with the information and communication strategy, although this should not cause the objectives or the funding thereof to be scaled down; for example, the Media programme could be used to finance films in order to encourage the development of the European audiovisual industry and at the same time promote the "image" and "spirit" of the Union; welcomes, therefore, the organisation of a European Youth Week with activity days under the banner "Young People in Parliament", which will strengthen young people's links with Europe;

13. Calls for greater pooling of existing audiovisual infrastructures currently dispersed between the different institutions; also believes that these infrastructures should be catalogued and their individual efficiency assessed;

14. Calls on the Institutions to examine the possibility of designing modern and accessible virtual visits and making available to the public recordings of all important events involving the institutions through a high-quality archive with search engine;

15. Welcomes the development of Europe Direct and urges the Commission to further develop this initiative on an interinstitutional basis to serve the EU's information and communication strategy;

16. Calls upon the Commission to act in accordance with the call in the European Parliament's resolution of 10 March 2005 [3] to declare 2006 European Year against Violence towards Women and to include this in its information strategy, especially in view of the fact that the Council of Europe is planning a similar campaign and advantage can be taken of synergy effects;

17. Stresses the need to find a formula that will make it possible to involve regional and local media more closely in information and communication policy;

18. Stresses the need for the European Union to create a centre of excellence for Communication within which there would be structured cooperation amongst all the EU institutions and which would provide scope for working with professionals and experts in the communication sector;

19. Invites the EU institutions to improve conditions for and working relations with accredited journalists and, more generally, to create the widest possible access to sources for all citizens seeking information on the European Union's policies and activities;

20. Stresses the need for the institutions to improve their press releases and the quality of all information intended for the press, in order to facilitate the work of all professional journalists closely following events in Brussels; calls also for the institutions' press releases to be prepared as far as possible by professional communications experts;

21. Calls on the Commission to hold an "ideas competition" which would enable original proposals to be brought together on the best ways of putting the European message across;

22. Urges the Commission to commission an independent outside agency to carry out a thorough assessment designed to analyse the cost and benefits of what it actually spends on information and communication;

23. Calls on the Commission to introduce a system that will make it possible to continue funding the Infopoints network in accordance with the rules laid down by the new Financial Regulation;

24. Believes that greater financial resources should be allocated to Eurobarometer, to enable it to compile much fuller and more rigorous reports;

25. Urges the Commission to improve the Europa website, making its content available in all the European Union official languages and those languages that have an official status in the Member States, provided that these so decide and assume the budgetary cost that it involves, in order to avoid discriminating in favour of some languages over others, and to make it possible for the vast majority of citizens to gain access to the information provided;

26. Believes that it would be very useful to havean intelligent and methodical "invasion" of Europa website links into the most frequently visited web pages, working on the general principle that it is not citizens who should have to go looking for information, but information that should come looking for the citizen;

27. Welcomes proposals to explore the feasibility of a second channel for Europe by satellite;

Interinstitutional cooperation

28. Considers it vital, in the interests of improved cooperation and efficiency, for the Commission regularly to submit the European Union's information and communication policy to parliamentary scrutiny in the form of an annual debate devoted to that sole topic;

29. Calls for a major joint debate in plenary on the strategy presented by the Commission and on the report of the Committee on Culture and Education, in which the Council should also participate;

30. Considers that this debate could lead to a joint declaration on the guidelines for joint information activities by the three institutions, while respecting the specific competencies of each institution and their right to develop their own information activities;

31. Calls on the Interinstitutional Group on Information (IGI) to draw up a proposal on an annual basis to ensure that budgetary provision is available to celebrate all important cultural events adequately;

32. Believes that the IGI should be predominantly political in character and act as a guarantor, and that the number of its members should be reduced to enable it to operate more effectively;

33. Notes that the Prince Programme has traditionally been based on partnership between the Commission and the Member States; and stresses the need for parliamentary involvement in the determination of Prince priorities and believes that MEPs should be fully involved in events organised under the aegis of the Prince Programme; welcomes the Commission's suggestion that the programming and monitoring of Prince be adapted to more accurately reflect Parliament's term;

34. Invites all EU institutions concerned to improve internal coordination with a view to enhancing the efficiency of the agreed communication and information strategy, thereby achieving better results;

35. Calls on the institutions to examine the possibility of setting up a lower level coordination group on which representatives of the relevant directorates-general in the different institutions and representatives of the relevant European Parliament committees would be represented and whose main task would be to coordinate the specific measures designed to implement the guidelines laid down by the IGI;

36. Believes it would be highly effective to establish a consultative body consisting of representatives from the European institutions and Member States and communications experts to provide guidance for the proper implementation of information and communication policy;

37. Insists upon participation by all the Member States, in particular those which have not hitherto been involved;

38. Is looking forward to receiving the Commission's communication on a renewed information and communication strategy, announced for May 2005; intends to engage in an enhanced dialogue on its implementation with the Commission and Council and also with the Committee of the Regions within its areas of responsibility; reiterates its willingness to cooperate fully with a view to achieving the objectives that will be agreed upon;

European Constitution

39. Stresses that the campaign of information and communication on the Constitution should become the main priority in the Union's information and communication strategy over the near future;

40. Considers that this priority should be approached from a dual perspective:

- the Union's institutions have a duty to inform citizens clearly and objectively about the content of the Constitution and the meaning of the changes it introduces as compared to the current Treaties,

- in addition, Parliament, the Council and the Commission have a political responsibility to support the ratification of the Constitution, always acting in agreement with Member States and taking into account the relevant national legislation;

41. Stresses, as regards information on the content of the Constitution, the particular importance of:

- the organisation of specific seminars for journalists on the Constitution — in the Member States and also in Brussels — aimed at conveying clearly and objectively the content of the Constitution, as well as correcting any misinformation as to the content of the Constitution,

- the need to develop specific activities for the academic world, namely by focusing the Jean Monnet action programme on European constitutional questions, organising academic seminars on the Constitution, helping to shape the content of academic programmes and sponsoring studies or publications on European constitutional questions,

- better promotion of the use of modern technologies, in particular, internet access to the text of the Constitution and explanations as to its content, as well as internet and telephone services to provide answers to questions on the content of the Constitution;

42. Stresses that the resources available under the Prince Programme should be concentrated on fostering public debate on the Constitution in view of the ratification campaigns in all Member States, and particularly in those Member States where a referendum will take place;

43. Therefore considers it desirable that Parliament and the Commission work together as closely as possible, namely by the signing of Memoranda of Understanding with all those Member States volunteering to do so; believes that Parliament should participate in all the initiatives undertaken by the Commission at national level in co-operation with the respective Member State governments;

44. Stresses the importance of also involving national parliaments in these initiatives, whenever possible;

45. Recalls the major role of regional and local authorities and their partners in the process of ratifying the Constitution, in making the information disseminated more personalised and thus more effective;

46. Recalls the important role of civil society organisations within the ratification debates and the need to make available sufficient support to enable such organisations to engage their constituencies in these debates across the EU in order to promote the active involvement of citizens in the discussions on ratification.

The European Parliament's information policy

47. Proposes to conduct an objective study on the efficiency of its information policy; in this context, welcomes the Bureau request, dated 10 January 2005, for a review of the role of the information offices in the Member States;

48. Takes note of the discussions currently being held within Parliament's Bureau concerning the possibility of creating a publicly owned parliamentary channel; welcomes the decision of the Parliament's Bureau to commission a feasibility study on the possible establishment of a parliamentary information channel or genuine European Parliament television channel; recognises that there are a range of different options for such a project and believes that any such channel should be independent; believes that such a channel could make a significant contribution to the development of a European public space; notes that, on earlier occasions, it has requested the Commission to launch an in-house impact study on such a European channel; stresses the need for there to be greater synergy between the activities of Parliament's information offices and those of the Commission's representations;

*

**

49. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, the governments of the Member States and the International Federation of Journalists.

[1] OJ C 47 E, 27.2.2003, pp. 400-406.

[2] OJ C 64 E, 12.3.2004, pp. 591-599.

[3] Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2005)0073.

--------------------------------------------------