Per un'Europa che dialoga: anche Ferpi offre il suo contributo operativo al dibattito avviato dal Li

Le nostre considerazioni confluiranno nel documento che la Cerp, la Confederazione Europea delle Relazioni Pubbliche, presenterà alla Commissione Europea.

Come già anticipato un paio di mesi fa, la Cerp, la Confederazione Europea delle Relazioni Pubbliche ha avviato al suo interno una riflessione per proporre alla Commissione Europea dei contributi progettuali ed operativi al dibattito avviato sul Libro Bianco. Le prime considerazioni delle associazioni componenti la Cerp, tra le quali la Ferpi, sono in fase di raccolta ed approderanno ad un documento di sintesi entro fine giugno che sarà redatto da un gruppo di lavoro cui partecipiamo.L'iniziativa Cerp si somma - non si sostituisce - al lavoro delle federazioni nazionali, che possono, come ovvio, effettuare riflessioni autonomamente e, autonomamente, proporre alla Commissione Europea i loro contributi. Questa è la strada scelta anche da Ferpi, che ha cominciato un dibattito al suo interno coinvolgendo le delegazioni territoriali con un roadshow già partito dalla Sicilia (brava, Amanda!) e che toccherà altre regioni d'Italia entro luglio.   Alleghiamo intanto le prime, sintetiche considerazioni sul Libro Bianco proposte alla Cerp dal nostro consigliere e Vice Presidente della Confederazione Europea Gianni Rizzuti: si tratta di un documento di lavoro non formale, ma che servirà alla Confederazione Europea per confezionare le sue proposte e che può servire a Ferpi per il suo roadshow e per arricchire il dibattito avviato anche sul nostro sito. 



The Italian Federation of Public Relations (FERPI) is fully aware that Europe quickly needs to reduce its deficits:  Dialogue, Debate, and Democracy. Some add a fourth "D": Delivery, and complain of insufficient benefits that the Union delivers to its  citizens. One year after the French and Dutch "No"s  to the "European Constitution", and deep in the process of a declining consensus of the Union's goals amongst its citizens, it is essential to accelerate the rethinking and relaunching and recovery (the three R's) of the European identity towards a democratic stakeholding framework in the context of a new European public sphere.
Here follow Ferpi's views for Cerp's contribution to the Commission request for comments.Question 1: Defining common principles to guide communication activities on European issues: which way forward? A viewpoint on the European Charter or Code of Conduct on Communication. Common principles and Charters to guide communication activities are useful inasmuch as  they may help fill the void of a European Public Sphere, while a Code of Conduct would simply add yet another fulfilment process which might also produce a negative reaction.A Recovery plan should clearly define and explain the main overall goals of the European Union, and envisioning its mission, its strategy towards its vision, and its main values.The second step requires to identify and prioritize stakeholders, listening to their opinions and expectations about Europe and its democratic and dialogue deficits, in order to include and enhance participation of citizens, the ones who agree/disagree with the current EU policies, and the ones who do not have a position about the issue.This envisioning process needs to be conducted in full transparency and bottom up, incentivating ample participation by those widespread publics who disagree and understanding their motivations. This, well before organizational objectives are set in order to ensure an overall improvement of the decision  making process and therefore an acceleration of their implementation times. Question 2: Empowering citizens - How to reach out to the citizen? Citizens need to be engaged in dialogue on the basis of their opinions of and attitudes towards current EU policies. Different communication  models need be carried forward, issue by issue, stakeholder group by stakeholder group, rather than simply country by country. It is essential to prioritise and segment publics across border lines by issues.
Pre-packaged messaging tools sent to all member states, with no difference at all - what technically is called one-way asymmetric communication - should be avoided. More freedom and power should be given to specific organisations and departments who are closer to selected priority constituencies to develop ad hoc dialogue mechanisms on the basis of common values and coeherent, but not necessarily identical, communication procedures. Question 3: Working with the media and new technologies - How to involve the media, including new technologies, more effectively in communicating on Europe? This is a step where traditional and new citizen generated media need first of all to be considered as full stakeholders in themselves before thinking of them as  information carriers. Thus, they need to be identified, selected, monitored, listened and engaged in on going dialogue.The model of involving media has to be as two-way symmetrical as possible. Moreover, the level of involvement may be enhanced through more pr professionalism inside EU departments, and a more appealing way of EU broadcasts and features on newspapers. Apparently there is much room, for instance, for storytelling and other kinds of newsmanaging concerning EU. Question 4: Understanding European public opinion - What more can be done to gauge European opinion?Since there is no detectable European public sphere today, there is no European public opinion. However, there are many different European public opinions corresponding to the issues which mostly impact on Eu's agenda often with very little bearing on national public spheres.This is why Eurobarometer needs to go through the three R process itself.However, in the short term national debates such our domestic initiatives on the White Paper - are useful because they help create the concept and the need for a European public sphere. Question 5: Doing the job together - How will the partnership between the key actors, i.e. member states, EU institutions, local and regional authorities, political parties and civil society organizations, work?The main goal is to make relationship management with stakeholders and influencers  as wide as possible. This is why roadshows and debates are useful.EU should strongly incentivate cross border activities of issue oriented mixed groups of civil society, eu employees, professional associations, cultural and political institutions coordinated by eu civil servants also through the nation by nation representative offices.