At the conference “Is the EU really listening to citizens? The ABC of Participatory Methods”, in the Résidence Palace Théâtre in Brussels yesterday, Commissioner Wallström presented the future Commission strategy “Communicating Europe in Partnership”.
The new communication proposal focuses on three main points:

• The emphasis on partnership between the EU, its member states, and civil society

• The empowerment of citizens and the creation of better forums for debate

• The consolidation of the approach adopted over the past two years.

 
The Commission wishes to end the “blame game” between the EU and member states. There will be action to create dialogue and debate, and a “European public sphere”, such as user-friendly “citizen-centred” forums that will “enable debates”. Furthermore, the Commission will work on promoting contact between the media and the EU, recruiting communication professionals, and broadcasting EU affairs programmes more widely.

Link to Commission Press Release:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/07/395&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Link to Inter-Institutional Agreement:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/wallstrom/pdf/COM2007_569_en.pdf
Link to the Commission Communication: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/wallstrom/pdf/COM2007_568_en.pdf