WRITTEN QUESTION E-1860/02 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Information campaign on EU enlargement.
Date: 2002-06-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, EU financing, EU publication, bureau of parliament, competence of the Member States, cooperation policy, enlargement of the Union, public awareness campaign

14.8.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 192 E/27

(2003/C 192 E/024)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1860/02

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(28 June 2002)

Subject: Information campaign on EU enlargement

On 29 May 2002, when a survey of people’s knowledge of, and interest in, the enlargement of the
European Union was being presented, the Commission revealed that almost none of the EUR 150 million
budget earmarked for an extensive information campaign on enlargement had been spent, even though a
similar survey conducted earlier had shown average knowledge of, and interest in, enlargement not to be
high enough.

Can the Commission say why it has waited so long before launching an information campaign on
enlargement, when it knew that the average EU citizen was poorly informed and showed little interest in
this issue?

How and when will it launch an information campaign?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(2 August 2002)

The Honourable Member is correct in noting the problem of public knowledge of the citizens of the
member states about the forthcoming enlargement of the Union. The survey on 29 May 2002 to which he
refers noted above all a lack of knowledge of the candidate countries themselves, although there was
interest in learning more about the future member states.

As was pointed out in the document presented by the Commission to the European Council in Seville, the
major role in informing citizens in the Union must be played by the candidate and member state
governments themselves. Therefore alongside the ongoing co-operation with the offices of the European
Parliament in Member States, the Commission is putting a priority on co-operation with the governments
concerned.

The Commission launched its communication strategy on enlargement
in May 2000, allocating
EUR 150 million for the strategy across the current and future Member States, for the period until 2006.
While the priority in 2001 in terms of informing the Union citizens was the transition to the single
currency, a wide range of information activities related to enlargement nevertheless took place in member
states during this period. Details can be found in the report ‘Explaining Enlargement’, submitted to the
in line with the commitment made by the
‘Inter-Institutional Group on Information’ in March 2002,
Commissioner in charge of enlargement to the Parliament in November 2001. This document and further
information on the implementation of the communication strategy can be found on the web site of the
Commission at http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/communication/index.htm.

The impression given to the Honourable Member that no funds have been committed in support of the
communication strategy is incorrect.

In fact, as of
communication strategy from the budgets 2000, 2001 and 2002, as follows:

June 2002, EUR 59,9 million have been committed for the implementation of

the

(cid:1) from the PHARE budget line, B7-030A, EUR 29,4 million;

(cid:1) from the Prince budget line, B3-0306/306A, EUR 28,1 million;

(cid:1) from the budget line B7-410A (Turkey), EUR 1,6 million;

(cid:1) from the budget lines B7-0040/1 (Cyprus and Malta), EUR 0,8 million.