Communication - Performance

(million EUR)

^{(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.}

To be effective, the Commission has to connect with citizens across all of the Member States to make them aware of its headline ambitions and to give them a way to feed their concerns and ideas into EU policymaking. One of the main, overarching challenges is to combine sustained up-to-date communication, in all relevant channels, on the medium- and long-term political priorities while ensuring proactivity and reactivity in crisis communication, notably countering foreign misinformation and disinformation narratives across a variety of crisis topics.

Connecting and clearly communicating with citizens is even more crucial in the face of the challenges confronting the EU, such as the post-COVID-19 economic and social context, and the far-reaching measures it has introduced to drive recovery, the response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the consequences of the resulting energy and supply chain crisis.

In view of the wide-ranging scope of the communication needs, an ambitious communication effort is necessary at the Commission level, to complement and reinforce communication actions on European topics carried out at the national, regional and local levels.

DG Communication, as a corporate communication service, brings the EU closer to its citizens by:

• listening: providing intelligence to the College, cabinets and services;
• advising: ensuring coherence in communication and domain leadership;
• engaging: reaching out to and engaging with citizens.

DG Communication pursues the following five specific objectives.

1. The College and services use country-specific intelligence, Eurobarometer results, media analysis and feedback from stakeholders/citizens to inform political decision-making.
2. The College receives strategic advice on communicating the political headline ambitions and on media landscapes in the Member States.
3. Corporate communication of the Commission's headline political ambitions is aligned across its departments.
4. Meaningful and tailored messages, focused on the Commission's headline political ambitions, are communicated to citizens, media, multipliers and stakeholders.
5. Citizens engage with the EU through face-to-face events and online interactive platforms, such as the Conference on the Future of Europe, thus stimulating the sharing of EU values and interest in and ownership of EU topics.

DG Communication pursues the above objectives through a variety of actions, including:

• providing executive and corporate communication services to the President, the College, the Spokesperson’s Service, Commission senior management and the Commission’s external communication domain;
• engaging with national, regional and local authorities, media, stakeholders and citizens in general through the Commission’s representations in the Member States;
• crafting communication products and services directly addressed to citizens via traditional and new media channels, along with face-to-face exchanges.

DG Communication is the lead DG for implementing the external communication activities described above. Its communication activities are implemented through direct management and grants, within the Commission’s political autonomy and institutional prerogatives.

Along with its executive and corporate communication tools and its wide array of services directly addressing European citizens, DG Communication can count on its network of Commission representations that act as the eyes, ears, and voice of the Commission in the Member States.

Communication activities are financed by the Commission under its prerogatives. Throughout the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework, DG Communication was under Title 16 of the Commission budget. Under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework, communication activities are included within heading 2 ‘Cohesion and values’, under policy cluster 7 ‘Investing in people and values’.

Compared to the previous (2014-2020) multiannual financial framework, under the current framework, DG Communication resources have been partly reoriented towards more future-oriented, innovative communication services where the Commission needs to be up to speed with the constantly evolving communication industry and the ever-faster reactions in the communication environment. Examples include the launch of the new Europa website (with special focus on ensuring web accessibility and increasing multilingual content), increased audiovisual production, intensified social media presence (at headquarters and in the representations) and more state-of-the-art graphic design. New needs have arisen in the fields of data analytics as, in particular in the fake news context, it is crucial to enhance the Commission’s rebuttal and myth-busting capacity. Also, new needs emerged in core businesses like citizen engagement activities, online consultations or the visitors’ centre (which has been revamped and modernised) and the Experience Europa information points (for example the new ‘Experience Europe’ digital exhibition at Rond-point Schuman 14 in Brussels, which offers visitors a virtual and immersive reality experience). It is worth noting that the above-mentioned communication tools serve as vessels of content which are regularly modified and adapted to reflect (geo-)political / economic / societal changes.

Programme website:

• Communication

Impact assessment:

• N/A

Relevant regulation:

• Tasks result from the European Commission’s prerogatives at the institutional level, as provided for in Article 58(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union.

Evaluations:

In 2022, DG Communication concluded three studies: the ‘Evaluation of prizes of the Commission’, the ‘Study on the citizens’ panels’ as part of the Conference on the Future of Europe and the ‘Target audiences analysis’ for ‘Communicating Europe’.

The ‘Evaluation of prizes of the Commission’ was co-managed by DG Communication and DG Budget. It was the first-ever study of this nature on prizes and awards managed by the European Commission. The study looked at symbolic, monetary and non-monetary prizes as part of the Commission’s external communication actions. The study not only resulted in a set of operational recommendations, but also offers hands-on tools such as a checklist with conditions for setting-up prizes and an accompanying toolkit with additional guidance, templates for designing an intervention logic for prizes and specific key performance indicators. The key lessons learned are shown below.

1. In terms of relevance, the evaluation identified that there is no mechanism to support the identification of synergies and/or to consolidate prizes going forward.
2. As regards the prize efficiency, while the Commission would like to maintain a spectrum of large and small prizes, there is a strong argument for reducing the number of prizes to refocus fragmented budgets and efforts on less prizes but to greater effect.
3. Most Commission prizes have their communication objectives defined too broadly. As a result, it was not possible to quantitatively assess whether the prizes meet their communication goals. Despite these limitations, stakeholder feedback indicated that the Commission prizes are overall effective in generating awareness and engagement among the targeted stakeholders’ community.
4. The study suggests that even where there are multiple prizes in the same DG or policy area, they are clearly distinguished from each other. There is no evidence of exact duplication of the Commission’s prizes with other similar Commission actions.
5. Prizes bring a clear added value to contestants, given the prestige of the EU brand, but the quality of the actual award and the experience of receiving that award do not always match expectations among contestants. In addition, there is a lack of consistency in the branding of Commission prizes.

Some concrete recommendations are currently being followed up (such as finalising the guidance package for the Commission services, that comprises a checklist with conditions for setting-up/streamlining prizes and an accompanying toolkit, both of which will be made available to the Commission services, together with the new vade mecum on prizes management) and organising dissemination events to present the results of the evaluation, main lessons learned and the existing/available tools. In addition, the recommendations of more strategic nature, such as the oversight role for prizes rationalisation and for their coordination, the creation of a central registry of prizes and an annual stocktaking are scheduled to be discussed in June 2023 with the relevant Commission governance body (Corporate Communication Steering Committee).

The study on the citizens’ panels, as part of the Conference on the Future of Europe, aimed (among others) at monitoring and evaluating the inclusiveness, effectiveness and impact of European citizens’ panels in the framework of the conference, and assessing the satisfaction of participants with the organisation and the process. The study provided concrete practical recommendations for the organisation of the panels or to how to tackle multilingualism, along with broader suggestions on how to reflect citizens’ proposals (at the drafting or decision-making stages). More concretely, the recommendations cover eight specific aspects of the exercise: preparation and scoping; recruitment; process timings; organisation of panels; multilingualism; communication with participants; sharing materials with participants; and use of the recommendations.

Some of the study’s recommendations are already being applied in the next generation of citizens’ panels (such as reduction of the scope, better-prepared knowledge provision, information on attitude towards the EU, note takers helping facilitators). Some, like allowing more time (weekends) of deliberations, are also known as being ideal but need to be balanced with the constraints of the timing of policymaking and the availability of budgetary resources. Though the diversity of the panels was praised, suggestions to go further on this could be looked into more closely, such as looking at a broad region of residency rather than nationality, or improving the inclusiveness by investing more on explaining concepts in different languages.

The ‘Target audiences analysis’ was the first time that the Commission conducted such a wide analysis of target audiences, their values, their perceptions of the EU and their media consumption habits. The objective was to go beyond the demographics traditionally used for audience definition and to optimise the Commission communication actions by addressing various audiences with the most appropriate strategies and tactics. Furthermore, the study looked in detail at the media consumption patterns of the various audience segments which helps developing the most effective ways to address European citizens, their concerns and information needs, using the most relevant and tailored media mix and communication material. Special attention was given to green and digital themes, to identify the best ways of engaging with citizens on these communication priorities. Apart from a full analytical report and relevant factsheets, the deliverables also included concrete recommendations, in a form of a matrix, on how to adapt (among others) messaging, objectives, tools and format based on the six general population segments and the relevant six segments for the 18-24 age group.

Concerning forthcoming studies, there are two ongoing studies:

• Study on DG Communication’s omnichannel digital communication (September 2022-September 2023);
• Study on Europe by satellite (December 2022-September 2023).

The planned studies to start in 2023 or later:

• evaluation/study on the Europe Direct centres (2023-2024);
• evaluation/study on corporate communication actions (2023-2024);
• evaluation/study on the Europe Direct contact centre (October 2023-March 2024);
• evaluation/study on the ‘Building Europe with local councillors’ (BELC) pilot project (June 2023-December 2023);
• market study – communication procurement (2023-2024)
• review of EC publications for citizens (2024-2025);
• evaluation/study of the corporate minimum requirements for communication and visibility under the long-term budget 2021-2027 (2024-2025);
• evaluation/study of the communication work of representations (reinforcement of local community managers) (2024-2025);
• evaluation/study on EC Visitors’ Centre and on Experience Europe RP14 (2025-2026);
• evaluation/study of the visibility of the Eurobarometer (2025-2026);
• evaluation/study on the partnerships with influencers (2025-2026);
• evaluation/study on the new series of citizens’ panels (2026-2027);
• evaluation/study on the joint strategy for the House of Europe (2026-2027);
• evaluation/study of the Europa website / social media (2027-2028).

• Commitment and payment appropriations were used in 2021 with a 100% implementation rate and in 2022 with respectively a 100% and 99% implementation rate, to finance activities along three activity strands: corporate services, Commission representations and services to citizens. The main activities and budget allocated under each strand are presented below:

  

• In 2021 and 2022, significant budget redeployments (about 8-10% of DG Communication’s yearly operational budget) were carried out in favour of the Conference on the Future of Europe and its follow-up activities, for which specific funding had not been provided during the 2022 budget procedure.
• As in 2022, in 2023 DG Communication will continue stepping up its crisis communication capabilities, once again learning lessons from the previous years. DG Communication has supported the President and the College in 2022 with timely and high-quality communication products and services to strategically position their role in a particularly challenging communication environment due to the juxtaposition of several crises. This approach has accompanied all themes of strategic importance for the Commission, notably a united and effective EU response to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, and the unwavering, strong and clear solidarity with Ukraine and its people. About half of the communication efforts and products throughout 2022 covered all different strands relating to this priority, including political, economic, humanitarian, sanctions, and military assistance. In 2023, DG Communication will continue adapting its communication, whether dealing with media or citizens’ queries or better coordinating and intensifying the disinformation response and keeping up to date the solidarity webpages (available also in Ukrainian and Russian). In 2022, DG Communication designed and implemented the ‘You are EU’ campaign that showcased how the EU advances and accelerates the necessary transition to renewables and energy independence from Russia. Given its unprecedented estimated reach of 325 million in the 27 Member States, a second wave of the campaign was launched in early 2023. In 2022, the Europe Direct contact centre assumed the role of an ‘EU solidarity with Ukraine’ helpline, introducing a service in Ukrainian and Russian, in addition to the 24 EU official languages, and a selection of Europe Direct centres also began answering questions in Ukrainian and Russian. Last but not least, in 2022 DG Communication adapted its polling and media monitoring/analysis services by adding new questions in the standard Eurobarometer survey and new keywords.
• In 2023, DG Communication will continue to provide the President and the College with political and economic reporting, evidence-based corporate communication actions, media advice, state-of-the-art communication products and services, both in headquarters and in Member States. As domain leader for external communication, it will coordinate the communication activities of other Commission services and will assist them in their communication activities. With the support of the representations and the extensive local network of Europe Direct centres, DG Communication will engage with citizens, national authorities, media and stakeholders on the ground.
• Furthermore, in 2023, DG Communication will continue to communicate on the six headline ambitions of the von der Leyen Commission, focusing mainly on the green and digital transitions and the implementation of the NextGenerationEU recovery plan. The strong role the Commission will continue playing in the challenging geopolitical environment will be further promoted. DG Communication will focus its political communication and core messages on the EU’s response to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the unwavering support to Ukraine and the commitment to its long-term recovery and European integration. Emphasis will be put on the energy sector, in particular communicating the EU’s continued efforts to break away from dependency on Russian fossil fuels, and the measures taken to address the impact of Russia’s weaponisation and manipulation of energy supplies, including those aiming to protect the most vulnerable.

^{(*) % of years for which the milestones or target was achieved during the 2021-2029 period.}

Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators