New media service aims to raise Parliament’s profile

Date: 11/07/1996

THE European Parliament is overhauling the way it presents its activities to the media in a bid to raise its public profile.

“Everyone agrees the Parliament should use more modern techniques and our main concern is to be of better service to journalists,” explains Stig Berglind, the head of the institution's press and audiovisual service.

The decision to introduce the changes was taken by the Parliament's President Klaus Hänsch and the 14 vice-presidents after studying the conclusions of reports prepared by Greek New Democracy MEP Georgios Anastassopoulos and consultants Hill and Knowlton.

In his analysis of why the Parliament tended to lose out to the Commission and the Council in press coverage, Anastassopoulos wrote that the latter two institutions were better served by the media, “the former because it takes the initiative on directives, the latter because it adopts them; we are in the middle of the process which does not stand us in good stead”.

Even former Commission President Jacques Delors acknowledged that the Parliament was “an unidentified political object”.

The changes now under way are designed to redress the balance. “The first reactions from outside have been positive. Obviously in any reform process there are teething problems at the start, but I feel the Parliament will now have a more distinctive face towards the outside world,” said one senior official.

Introduced last week, the new information system will be initially reviewed at the end of the month and again at the end of the year, with further refinements introduced if necessary.

Running through the changes being implemented by Berglind, formerly a journalist and then press officer at the Swedish representation to the EU, is an emphasis on providing information more quickly and in a more digestible form - for both the media and a wider public.

It has meant replacing the Parliament's earlier comprehensive but somewhat technical bulletins, known as Info-Memos, with a series of better-presented shorter reports, written in both English and French.

A daily news report provides succinct coverage of selected committee decisions and the day's main events. A weekly news alert lists the highlights of parliamentary activity in the coming week, while specialised background reports give details of complex issues under debate.

The changes are not intended to affect the information service's coverage of the Parliament's plenary sessions in Strasbourg and Brussels. These will continue to appear in all 11 official EU languages, but written in a style accessible to the general public.

The Parliament's use of new technology now extends to the Internet, with information placed on the Union's EUROPA server (http://europa.eu.int). It has also reactivated its Europhone system which provides information in French and English to anyone dialling Brussels 32 2/284 2800.