Europees parlement onthult communicatiestrategie voor Europese verkiezingen in juni (en)

The European Parliament’s communication strategy for the 2009 elections was unveiled to the media on Tuesday. EP Vice Presidents Alejo Vidal-Quadras and Mechtild Rothe outlined the key message: that the EU has major policy choices ahead which will affect the everyday lives of European citizens – and that by voting in the elections citizens can affect those choices.

The two vice-Presidents set out some of the instruments the campaign will use, all designed to highlight some of the choices that may go one way or another depending on the political composition of the next European Parliament:

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  billboards with themes including, energy, fuel/climate change, food/agriculture, equal opportunities, borders/migration, standardisation, security, consumer protection, budget, and markets;
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  3-dimensional street installations to complement the poster campaign, covering energy, borders/migration, consumer protection and security;
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  Choice boxes – a room-size multimedia box where voters can air their views – a selection of recordings will be played daily on screens outside the box, in Brussels and through EuroparlTV and Youtube;
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  TV and radio;
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  the elections website www.elections2009.eu which was launched in January;
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  the use of social media, including entries on MySpace and Facebook and using Flickr and EU Tube.

Vice-President Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP-ED, ES) said:  “The single message of the campaign is about choice. It is not designed to appeal to citizens’ civic duty, but to highlight that there are major policy choices confronting the EU which will impact on people’s lives, that these choices are decided at European level with the Parliament playing the leading role as to which policy choice is selected and that citizens can influence the selection of these policy choices by voting in the European elections for candidates who reflect their political preferences.” 

He added that the campaign was institutional and non-partisan, centred on the concept of choice, but not favouring any particular choice: “It is deliberately designed to appeal to all shades of political opinion from those who hold strongly integrationist positions, to the those that are more concerned about the preservation of the sovereignty of Member States.”

Vice-President Mechtild Rothe (PES, DE) said: “The key thing is to speak the language that people speak. Not only in terms of official languages, but also in terms of feelings, political and cultural differences from one Member State to another.”

She added: “We will communicate loud and clear that the European Parliament is important for the citizens and that their voice counts in the European Union. Every voter has a choice to make: It’s your choice.”