Europe found a new extraordinary way to support the European integration of Ukraine and, most importantly, to enhance the awareness about the benefits of the Association Agreement and the overall rapprochement with the European community. British Ambassador Simon Smith and the EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski presented the project of the two-year program “Promotion Campaign” in favor of the Association Agreement at a meeting of the Ukrainian Parliament Committee on European Integration on April 10.
The project titled “Study of Awareness of Target Groups and Communication Campaign Strategy on the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, including the FTA” was developed by Key Communications Company and was funded by the UK Government through the British Embassy in Ukraine.
“The European Union has a common belief and common vision of that this Association Agreement (AA) will be very useful for all of us. But we must be specific and stop talking in abstract terms about it. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to better explain the benefits of this agreement for average Ukrainians and tell that it is about introduction of better standards of environment protection, investment climate, increasing opportunities for Ukrainian companies, and improvement of the judicial system,” said Mr. Smith. According to him, this new idea supports the efforts of many people in Ukraine, who do a lot for Ukraine’s European integration.
Meanwhile, Jan Tombinski first apologized that he could not speak Ukrainian and added that the state official language is the highest value and should be respected in the parliament. According to him, the authors of the project outlined arguments in favor of the agreement, which include, among other things, questions and answers regarding particular stereotypes that are being expressed against integration. Mr. Tombinski believes that the best agitators for the agreement can be 315 MPs who supported signing of the Association Agreement with a resolution. “This project is open and new statements can be added to it,” said the EU Ambassador.
It should be noted that the estimated budget of the two-year promotion campaign is almost 2.3 million euros. However, as European mission informed The Day, it is still unknown who will provide the funds. Most likely the expenses will lay on the Ukrainian side, which will take over all the coordination work of the project. Currently the Ukrainian government has managed to only prepare a concept of enhancing public awareness about European integration, which was approved in March. According to the government officials, a detailed action plan for enhancing awareness of the benefits of the AA among Ukrainians will be developed in three months. Wouldn’t it be too late and why is everything done at such a slow pace?
And this all is done despite the fact that, as noted in this study, the current efforts of a number of the EU member states and the EU mission in Ukraine to promote public discussion of the Association Agreement did not bring the desired result.
Still the awareness about European integration in general and the Association Agreement among different target groups is low. Ukrainians tend to treat the topic of European integration as a matter of high politics, which does not apply to the life of ordinary citizens, at least, not in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it is argued in the study that such situation makes it more difficult for ordinary citizens to form their own opinion and clearly define their position on the issue of the EU integration. The number of those who have not yet decided on their opinion on this issue among the surveyed audience has increased and is now 30 percent. Thus, according to the authors of the project, now there is a situation in Ukraine when it is easy for politicians to manipulate public opinion within the country and for conducting promotional campaigns abroad.
According to the project, the way to resolve the situation and provide the support for the AA, in case it signed, which will facilitate successful reforms, is to conduct informational and educational promotion campaign using tools of integrated communications and original approaches.
The authors of the project offer to raise the public awareness about the EU and AA by giving each target group clearly defined arguments that are easy to understand regarding specific benefits of the AA. Specific and credible arguments should be also provided to each target group for debunking existing “myths.”
During the discussion of this project First Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Committee on European Integration Iryna Berezhna suggested that PR campaigns aimed at making money on this issue should not be included in this information project. “It would be better if this task was left to NGOs interested in European integration – this would be more productive,” stressed Berezhna. She considers mental Europeanization of youth to be an important fact of the European integration. Thus, according to her, there is a need to organize more projects of youth exchange, discussions on the topic of European integration with the young people. Berezhna promised to do these things in her constituency in Kharkiv.
Speaking about the sources for funding the informational campaign, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Committee on European Integration Hryhorii Nemyria noted: “If European integration is the state priority, the state must find the money for it, even in a difficult situation.”
Meanwhile, the coordinator of the working group of the Ukrainian National Platform Andrii Kohut drew attention to the use of symbols in enhancing the awareness about the EU among Ukrainian citizens. According to him, three Ukrainian cities raise the EU flag along with the national flag at special events. He also asked a rhetorical question: why the train No.1 is the train going from Kyiv to Moscow and not the one going, for instance, from Lviv to Donetsk.
In fact, in order to move towards Europe Ukraine needs everything: money, propaganda, symbolism, but most importantly – free will. It should be demonstrated by the government and the opposition, NGOs and the civil society. And if at the Vilnius Summit the Association Agreement will not be signed it will be a common failure. The Ukrainian parliament must realize these things and should not provoke new protests, instead of passing laws, many of which are unpopular, but very important for modernization and continuing the movement towards Europe and European standards.
