Success stories

Raising Awareness about the Enlargement of the Union

Client:

European Commission - Enlargement DG

Year:

2002

Languages:

English

Aims:

To work with European television channels to raise awareness of citizens in the 15 Member-States about the enlargement of the European Union. At that time, this subject was not very well known. Some polls even suggested that many people were completely unaware that it would happen within two years.

Solutions:

Mostra designed a press pack designed specifically for television journalists within the EU who were likely to be interested in the future Member-States. This pack provided television correspondents and producers with a selection of subjects off the beaten track, which might alter prejudices and combat the stereotypical attitudes held by some citizens of the Fifteen about the countries of Central and East Europe.

We also produced a series of VNRs entitled «New Europeans : Voices from candidate countries» and a documentary - «Is Enlargement a win-win situation?» - for use by European broadcasters.

The «New Europeans» series provided portraits with images and interviews of exceptional characters from various backgrounds, to illustrate the changes that have taken place in the future Members-States, and to highlight little-known aspects of the lives of our Eastern neighbours. The characters included in this portrait gallery ranged from the Hungarian Erno Rubik, the inventor of Rubik's Cube, to a Slovakian wine-growing family promoting a 'Route of Eastern Wines'.

The documentary «Is enlargement a win-win situation?» was filmed in Porto, Portugal, and Poznan, Poland. It illustrated the way in which Portugal, who has been a major beneficiary of European structural funds, viewed enlargement of the European Union. Alongside some fears that Portugal might lose part of the EU «cake», there is also a willingness to embark on the conquest of substantial new markets. In the course of the documentary we accompanied a group of Portuguese entrepreneurs who decided to suit the action to the word, and leave for Poland.

The VNRs were made available to television journalists one week before the Copenhagen Summit on enlargement. Dozens of TV channels took advantage of the offer. The press pack was handed out to all accredited journalists at the summit. Many ideas for features proposed by Mostra were taken up by TV programmes.