Getting the message across

Date: 25/09/1997

By Mark Turner

IF ONE thing upsets EU citizens about the Union, it is that they were never told what they were getting into.

Time and again, critics claim that if they had understood the real nature of the beast, they would never have ticked the 'yes' box in their referendum. Yet, as things stand, there is a real danger that the same mistakes will be made all over again in central and eastern Europe.

Despite years of debate, the amount of information available to the average person in the region is minimal.

“While the intellectual cadres of society are well informed, the man in the street probably has next to no idea of the intricacies of how it all works,” said one central European diplomat.

Most associate Union membership with a fairly nebulous concept of rejoining the West, improving standards of living, or allowing foreigners to move in and buy up their land.

Unfortunately, informing the East is proving a politically sensitive and difficult task. The European Commission is extremely wary of finding itself in the role of propagandist and cannot afford to give the impression that any other than the central European applicants themselves are the demandeurs.

But if there is to be a campaign, the Commission - as the repository of all EU knowledge - has to be involved.

The result has been a rather disorganised effort by all sides, replete with turf battles between the Commission's Directorate-General for information (DGX), the Phare information unit and the Commission's delegations in the candidate countries.

The applicant governments themselves have found pitching their campaigns a difficult task, leading to endless arguments over form and content. As a result, most are still only in early planning stages.

Hungary, a notable exception, developed a basic communication strategy in 1994-5 and has managed to see it through with very little administrative help from the Commission.

The Czech Republic has also, after months of debate, finally agreed the terms of reference for its own campaign.

But even where things have started rolling, they have often been rather disorganised or misconceived, according to Brussels experts.

A Polish European information centre which opened this year, for example, closed only months later.

The danger is that if the applicant governments do not start laying the groundwork now, they may find that when it comes to decision time their populace says 'no' to membership.

Although recent Eurobarometer statistics show there are more supporters than opponents in every applicant country, that support is far from unreserved. The Baltic states in particular remain profoundly ambivalent about joining, with many warning against leaving one union only to join another.

In a bid to get things going, the Commission is planning a major new information strategy for next year, aiming to bring all the currently diverse strategies into a coherent whole.

Using the Czech and Hungarian experiences as 'best practice' models, the Commission aims to advise the applicant governments on how to spread information most effectively, principally through the mass media, and tailor their messages to the needs of the people.

Hinging on the new strategy's success, say its supporters, is far more than technical pride. It is the very future of the Union.