Funds set for Euro campaign

Date: 22/02/1996

A TOTAL of 17 million ecu is likely to be made available this year for the EU's efforts to explain the advantages and practicalities of the single currency to the public, business and financial institutions.

The sum is about a third of the 50-million-ecu budget allocated to the European Commission and Parliament this year for their three coordinated information exercises.

The bulk of the funds, a total of 23 million ecu, will be used to explain to the public the rights and opportunities they enjoy in the Union.

The share-out also includes 5 million ecu to promote the work of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), which opens next month, with a further 5 million ecu retained in a special reserve fund.

The allocation of funds proposed by the Commission is based on recognition of the need to boost public support for the EU before crucial referenda are held on the outcome of the IGC and the future of the Union.

The proposed funding will be examined by a senior group of MEPs next week. They were given details of the plan at a joint preparatory meeting in Strasbourg a few days ago. Some Euro MPs are already pressing for more funds to be made available for the IGC exercise, even though its outcome is unlikely to be known before well into 1997.

But other MEPs disagree. “Frankly, the IGC, with its very complex negotiating procedure, is very difficult to put over to the ordinary European citizen. Nor do we know when, where or how it will finish,” said one prominent Euro MP who broadly supports the Commission's figures.

The final budget will probably be determined within the next fortnight by a team of four Commissioners, led by Information Commissioner Marcelino Oreja, and a five-member MEP delegation under Greek Vice-President Georgios Anastassopoulos.

The group will have to agree just how the two institutions should collaborate in their communication efforts and how their own staff, including Commission and Parliament offices in the 15 member states, will be involved.

They also face the more controversial task of deciding on the extent to which consultants should participate in the process, after the Commission indicated that it wanted the advertising agency Lintas to be closely involved in the 23-million-ecu 'Citizens First' project. Supporters of the move believe outside expertise is essential, while opponents prefer to use the institutions' own resources.

Anastassopoulos says there is no doubt, in his mind, that Parliament and Commission offices in each country will be involved. But he adds: “We still need to discuss their exact roles. Personally, I do not like to talk of campaigns as that can provoke reactions. What we are engaged in are more intensive and better coordinated information exercises. Everywhere, citizens are expressing their desire to be better informed. It is their right to do so. We must respond.”

The Parliament has already released 15 million of the

50-million-ecu budget for the information exercises under the comprehensive umbrella of Programmes for the Information for the Citizens on Europe (PRINCE).

British Conservative MEP James Elles, who won support for the PRINCE initiative in this year's EU budget, has made it clear that the Commission must respect certain principles before the remaining funds are released.

“Two essential conditions which the Commission will have to observe are sensitivity for national and regional concerns cooperating closely with member states, as well as the necessity to ensure a two-way flow of information. It is vital that people's concerns are heard and that their views are taken into account,” he insists.