Last year we told you about our busy autumn with the PERCEIVE Project and our numerous transfers to Brussels. This year we’re going back to EuroPCom to hold a workshop on European project communication!
The ninth EuroPCom will take place on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 November 2018 and this year’s theme will be “Campaigning for Europe”. The objective of the event is to create a platform that brings together methods and initiatives for promoting democratic commitment and support for the European project, especially in view of the European parliamentary elections in 2019 and within a climate of growing mistrust in the EU, which continues to dominate the media and represents a central issue in countries with national elections taking place.
Why Should I care about EU? is the title of the workshop we have organised for EuroPCom, which will form part of the section dedicated to Ideas Labs. These workshops offer the chance to take part in the event in a more practical and tangible fashion. It’s certainly a provocative title given the objectives of the event, but it is intended to make people reflect on the importance of European projects for European citizens, particularly because they are often overlooked as a result of excessively standardised and institutional communication. In other words, leaving wordplay aside: why should I be interested in the EU? Why is it relevant to me? This is perhaps the question we should ask whenever we think about the poor turnout in European elections. As we have already mentioned thanks to the data collected by the PERCEIVE Project, citizens are often unaware of what the European Union does for them and how it benefits their daily lives.
In order to reflect on this theme during the workshop, we will simulate the creation of a communication strategy. We will be adopting a very practical approach, starting with a short description of an EU-funded project, its subject, objectives and direct beneficiaries. But who are the broader circle of people who benefit indirectly from this project? What are their interests, habits and feelings towards Europe? Without taking these variables into account, it is difficult to think about how to more effectively communicate what the EU does for its citizens, thereby stimulating their sense of belonging. In order to answer these questions, the participants will have to profile the primary and secondary target groups of the presented projects and identify the communication operations targeted at them.
