Battle for hearts and minds begins

Date: 15/06/2000

By Simon Taylor

GIVEN widespread fears that enlargement could lead to mass immigration and higher unemployment, it may take more than the €150 million the European Commission has set aside to win the battle for hearts and minds.

Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen denies that the information strategy is designed to combat a wave of anti-enlargement tub-thumping by populists across the EU such as Austria's Jörg Haider and his xenophobic Freedom Party.

Verheugen insists the information campaign was a priority even before the far-right's electoral success in Austria. But concern about the negative impact of taking in up to 13 new countries with a combined population of around 170 million and where the average income is less than half current Union levels is not confined to the Union's right-wing parties.

Even Germany and Austria's centre-left Social Democrats want protective measures to stem the potential flow of workers from countries bordering the EU after enlargement.

Given Germany's own experience as it struggled to absorb former east German citizens, winning the political argument in favour of enlargement will be a tough task. Success will depend as much as on what sort of concrete safeguards the Union can provide to those living in border areas, who will be most affected by expansion, as to the warm words used in the information campaign.

To ensure the positive message about expansion gets across, the Commission is planning the biggest media campaign since its €200-million publicity drive for the single currency. But the money will be shared between the 15 current EU member states and the 13 applicant countries. Spreading the cash over seven years means there will only be an average of €4 a year per person to spend. As a result, a small country such as Latvia with a population of 2.5 million will get under €100,000 annually, while Poland will receive €1.5 million.

The Commission has already indicated that the funds will be targeted at key countries and groups in society to achieve maximum impact for the money available. It intends to focus the campaign on key opinion formers such as business executives, parliamentarians, trade unionists and educationalists, although special attention will have to be paid to those with the most to lose from enlargement like people in border regions, farmers and workers in industries being restructured.

The Commission's strategy involves taking a strongly decentralised approach to the campaign, allowing each country to decide which aspects of the enlargement debate it wants to emphasise to ensure that it tackles the most pressing issues in each particular situation. This is particularly important given that the campaign will not only be aimed at overcoming suspicions in existing EU member states about the effects of enlargement. Levels of support for joining the Union in the applicant countries themselves are a more sensitive issue and, in some countries, the majority is favour of membership is perilously slim.

While in existing EU member states, the decision to take in a new country has to be approved by national parliaments, most of the candidate countries have committed themselves to holding a referendum on entering the Union. As close votes in the EU have shown, the views of groups with the most to fear from joining the Union could be crucial in deciding the result.