Innovations in the EU communication policy

In: Sovremennaja Evropa: Contemporary Europe, Heft 1, S. 21-33

Abstract

The objectives and mechanisms of the European Union (EU) communication policy are considered. The article is based on the author's definition of the EU political myths as the main messages of its official communications, which contain imaginative ideas about the values of the EU and a guide to action to achieve the ideal. Communication policy has been studied as a tool to preserve the sustainability of EU values and to consolidate them on the agenda. A review of the official sources and the works of European think tanks allowed us to reveal its transformations in modern conditions. They consist in greater wastefulness and regularity of communications, increased requirements for communicators. Official Brussels gives priority to active communications (conferences and other forms of discussion of norms and strategies involving stakeholders) as the most effective in terms of influencing public opinion and, presumably, uses triangulation tactics. In passive communications (in reports, brochures, communitations on the results of activities), transformations consist in the establishment of mandatory organization standards and criteria for submitting information - modernity, reasonableness, added value for the EU. Taking into account the experience of the EU, recommendations are given for the EAEU.