Parliament leaders in bid to boost voter turnout

The leaders of the European Parliament have agreed a communications strategy for the 2009 elections in a bid to counter the trend of falling voter turnout.

The strategy will focus on raising citizens’ awareness about the election date as well as highlighting the growing importance of the Parliament as an EU decision-making institution, shaping legislation which directly affects voters, and an elected body offering voters different political choices.

A paper on the strategy drawn up by Harald Rømer, the Parliament’s secretary-general, has been approved by the bureau, comprising the president and 14 vice-presidents, and by leaders of the political groups.

Voter turnout fell to its lowest ever level, an average of 47.3% for the EU25, at the 2004 elections. In Slovakia, one of the ten countries which joined in May 2004, turnout was only 17%.

The paper says that while increasing voter participation is beyond its scope, the Parliament’s information service should "make the strongest possible case for voters to go to the polls in June 2009". At its most basic, the campaign, which will have a budget of around €10 million, should ensure that voters know that elections are taking place and on which date. "While hard for insiders to understand, there is abstention due to ignorance of the fact and date of European elections," the paper says.

The paper says that strategy should also "try to reflect the grandeur of the European elections". With 375 million citizens eligible to vote, the elections would be "an unprecedented exercise in transnational democracy" and, apart from the Indian elections, "the greatest exercise in democracy per se".

The strategy should focus on the "institutional" aspects of the Parliament nature, providing "neutral and objective information and communication products and services", according to the paper. It should aim to highlight the Parliament’s powers in the legislative field, the impact of its decisions on the daily life of citizens and the record of the 2004-09 legislature.

The campaign will also emphasise the enhanced powers of the Parliament under the new Treaty of Lisbon, which, if ratified by all member states, will come into force before the 2009 European elections. Under the new treaty, Parliament will gain co-decision powers in 36 new areas including justice and home affairs. The outcome of the elections will also have a greater influence on the political direction of the EU, as under the new treaty the next president of the European Commission will have to be chosen taking into account the biggest party in the next Parliament.

The paper says that the campaign should emphasise that the electorate faces a range of "major policy issues, challenges and threats" and a "choice of different political alternatives on how to deal with them in the 2009 elections".

The Parliament is planning to hire a communications agency to help with implementation of the strategy. A call for tenders will be launched later this year and the agency should be able to operate in all member states.

During the pre-election campaign, the Parliament is planning to use a range of communication tools including Web TV, a dedicated webstreamed channel covering the assembly’s activities in all official languages. This should be launched early next year following a pilot phase starting in November. The Parliament also wants to use the 50th anniversary, in 2008, of the first meeting of the European Parliament to bring the assembly into limelight. It plans to devise a slogan and design a logo to mark the anniversary.

The strategy deals only with the Parliament’s information campaign, to be run by the directorate-general for information, rather than the political groups’ own campaigns.

The leaders of the European Parliament have agreed a communications strategy for the 2009 elections in a bid to counter the trend of falling voter turnout.