The EU Communication Strategy on the Fifth Enlargement
The EU Communication Strategy on the Fifth Enlargement

Summary/Abstract: The process that opened its borders to the East Europe and to two Mediterranean islands - Malta and Cyprus - have pushed European institutions to make a greater effort at communication to draw Europe closer to its citizens. For this reason the European Commission launched in May 2000 the Communication Strategy to explain the process and its implications to the citizens of EU member States and candidate Countries, later included in the framework of the reform sustained by the President Romani Prodi in 2001 about activities regarding the EU information and communication policy. In this essay, after a content analysis of the Strategy, was carried out an impact assessment of the Communication Strategy itself on public opinion using data from Eurobarometer (EB) surveys (1997-2003) and from Candidates Countries Eurobarometer, CCEB, (2001-2003), particularly the sections regarding enlargement and the European citizens’ knowledge of the EU. In this way, the comparison of survey data between the years before and after the launch of the Strategy made possible to evaluate properly the effectiveness of the communication activities launched by the European Commission. Afterward, findings from this study were used to identify positive and critical points of the Strategy and to make some suggestions for future communication activities undertaken by the European Commission.

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