EU online campaigns

For years, the European Parliament has tried to direct the attention of its citizens towards its work in Brussels and Strasbourg by sponsoring media projects. But the effort doesn't seem to have great effects. A majority of online projects co-financed by the European Parliament for example fail to reach a mass audience.

Every year since 2005, the Directorate-General for Communication of the European Parliament has handed out grants to co-finance media projects that "aim to enhance understanding of the role and functioning of the European Parliament," encourage larger public interest in EU institutions and give citizens the chance to raise issues themselves, it says in the program's framework.

The grants are given out in four categories: TV, radio, events and internet. From 2010 to 2012, the European Parliament gave over 5 million euros in grants to 44 different internet projects. Among them are European news portals, animation series explaining the EU and an online game about a blue alien traveling to earth to find out more about the EU.

Failing to reach mass audiences

Visitor statistics were available for twenty of these projects. Nine of them were visited by less than 5,000 people during the entire grant period, usually a year. Five of them had a reach of between 5,000 and 50,000. Only six projects managed to reach more than 50,000 Europeans.

The Polish project "Moja gmina: Europa" for example, was an online training developed by the Polish Press Agency (PAP). The European Parliament funded the agency with 135,000 Euro (186,000 Dollar). According to a journalist working at the agency, 329 people took the course.

“The goal is not always to reach as many people as possible”, says Mireille van der Graaf, co-founder of Welcomeurope, an independent French consultancy firm specialized in helping to acquire EU grants. Sometimes a specific, difficult-to-reach public is the target audience. So a project that does not reach a mass audience is not necessarily a failed project, according to the consultant.

A goal achieved, no matter how small, is a success

Marjory Van Den Broeke, head of the Press Unit of the European Parliament, explained the distribution of grants: "What is important, is the procedure for dedicating a grant to projects," Van Den Broeke wrote in an email. "Only on average 25 percent of the project requests are accepted. In the project proposal, the organisation needs to clearly state the aims of the action as well as the expected results and impact.” As long as the delivered product is what the organisation promised in the proposal, the European Parliament is satisfied.

So in that sense, "Moja gmina: Europa" was a success. According to the PAP journalist, the expected number of people to take the online course as promised in the project proposal was 200. Target achieved.

Online projects do not profit from a key characteristic of the internet. Of the four media categories that receive grants from the European Parliament - TV, radio, internet and events - the online projects have the most potential for durability. Once the startup costs for an online project have been paid, it is relatively cheap to maintain the project.

But at least five of the 44 internet projects have been taken down after the grant period. The Spanish municipality Andujár received almost 23,000 Euro to develop the online game about the alien visiting earth, who returns to his spaceship a rapping europhile. But it is no longer available online, because the municipality didn't pay the hosting company to renew the website's address. Most of the projects are no longer updated once the grant period is over.

Money down the drain?

“Sometimes we are spending money really for nothing”, says Doris Pack, a German Member of the European Parliament. She suggests a reform in the way the Directorate-General for Communication spends taxpayers' money on promoting the European Parliament. “I think there is a lot of money and a lot of money that is not given in the right direction.”

Another problem according to Pack is that these projects are mostly being viewed by people that already have a higher interest in European politics than average: “We are reaching only people who want to be reached.”

“Communications from the European Union is often purely one-sided - a propaganda story about why you should love Europe and this European Union”, says Marianne Thieme, a member of the Dutch parliament. She questions the notion that the European Parliament “has a budget to promote itself”. Thieme calls for the abolition of these media project grants.

EU politicians can see whether or not the campaign projects had any real effect on May 25. That's when citizens of the European Union go to the polls to choose a new European Parliament. Turnout has been steadily decreasing, but maybe blue aliens managed to get more people interested in EU politics.