Commission and MEPs join forces on openness

Date: 19/10/1995

By Rory Watson

INFORMATION policy in the European Union is being given a higher political priority as the European Commission and Parliament aim to sharpen their public message and pool their separate resources under one roof in each of the 15 member states.

The change in strategy will become clear next year. The Commission agreed last week to concentrate its efforts on explaining to the public three key themes: its rights in the internal market, the move to a single currency and the implications of the review of the Maastricht Treaty.

Earlier this year, MEPs began the process by threatening to withold or cut information policy funds unless the two institutions worked together to establish how to use the money more efficiently.

The amount would considerably boost the 91.6 million ecu which the EU's seven institutions have at their disposal this year for their various information activities. The vast bulk of this (67.3 million ecu) is spent by the Commission, with a further 21.5 million ecu being spent by the Parliament.

The move to present a clearer Union message and end the confusion which emerges in member states from different Commission and parliamentary voices was started earlier this year by Greek Christian Democrat MEP, Georgios Anastassopoulos, in an internal parliamentary report.

“The main thrust of my report was that the Parliament and the Commission should work together. We have to make the Commission recognise it must project the Parliament and all the EU institutions as well. This has not generally been done in the past,” he explained.

The call for more cooperation between the institutions is already yielding dividends. In July, the information departments of the Commission and Parliament produced a joint report pointing to the more cohesive presence the Union would enjoy in the eyes of the public, the administrative savings and the synergy which would flow.

The two institutions are now planning joint annual meetings of their information departments, a shared annual programme and closer links with the Parliament's budgets committee.

British Conservative MEP James Elles, the parliamentary rapporteur for the 1996 budget, wants MEPs to use their budgetary powers to direct more funds for information policy and give another push towards coordinated campaigns.

In a background report prepared for MEPs earlier this year, he admits the EU “has not always had an information policy to match its ambitions”.

He envisages an additional coordinated campaign specifically targetted at European citizens under the acronym PRINCE - Programme for the Information of the Citizens of Europe.

“We need to tell citizens what their rights are and let them reply so we have a dialogue. We must tell them what exists. It is not propaganda, but objective and accurate information. If people are going to be asked to vote on whether the EU is worthwhile, then they should be aware of what it does,” he explains.

In Paris, the Commission and Parliament's offices jointly operate an on-line host on Minitel. In Madrid they cooperate in the production of booklets and videos and in Bonn at various public events.

A combined message, with both institutions housed in each member state under a single “maison de l'Europe” roof with each respecting the autonomy and specific role of the other would undoubtedly yield savings. The Commission spends 35.6 million ecu and the Parliament 7 million ecu on annual rental, administrative and operating costs (except for staff salaries) in the member states' capitals and the eight other major cities where the Commission is represented.

Already the institutions share premises in Dublin, the Hague, Lisbon and Paris. MEPs would like to see the universal cohabitation operate by the year 2000.