CEC European Managers' invited to the New Parliament

In a special session on June 26, 2024, CEC European Managers, as official communication partner of the EU Parliament, was briefed on the calendar and priorities for the forthcoming legislative period. The session allowed various organisations to gain insights into the EU Parliament’s plans and strategies post-EU elections regarding communication and dissemination through the social partnerships network.

Established in 2019, this network aims to maintain engagement among its members through regular meetings and information coming directly from the European Parliament.

CEC European Managers was invited to join this influential partnership cluster a couple of months ago, thanks to the success of the Use Your Leadership campaign which mirrored the 2024 EU Elections’ claim Use Your Vote.

Philipp Schulmeister, Director of Campaigns at Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM), opened the session by welcoming the organisations participating in the Together.eu cluster and introduced the two new claims: THANK YOU FOR VOTING and DEMOCRACY IN ACTION.

Impact of Communication Campaigns

Schulmeister highlighted the effectiveness of the recent communication campaigns, illustrating them with the fact that the global voter turnout in the EU reached 51%, a slight increase from the previous elections. Notably, Slovakia and the Czech Republic experienced a +13% increase, while Ireland registered an additional 200,000 voters.

The Use Your Vote campaign materials featured 11 video assets that garnered 525 million views over five weeks, with 64% of viewers watching the videos in full. In that sense, Michael Findeis, Head of the Press Unit at DG COMM, detailed the upcoming steps and key dates for the Parliament and EU Institutions, with the elections of the EU Commission President, the constitutive plenary session scheduled between 16th and 19th July and the Constitutive Meeting of the European Parliament Committees scheduled between the 22nd and the 25th of July as major milestones.

Regarding the compositions of the Parliament, Schulmeister pointed out that about 45% of MEPs will be new, and almost 40% will be women. The final list of MEPs and their contact points will be published after the first constitutive session.

Among the first tasks they must deal with, MEPs must tackle the pending actions from the previous legislation. Overall, there are still 119 pending OPL files and the topics of the defense of democracy package, the anti-corruption framework, the electoral law, the debate on transnational lists or the revision of the treaties will be some of the hot topics on the table.

Key Priorities for the New Term

The key priorities for the New Period are divided into 5 big blocks, categorised as follows:

Social Economic Recovery

Retail investor protection
Payment services
Combatting late payments, especially for SMEs
Quality and paid traineeships

Green Deal

Addressing food and textile waste
New genomic techniques
2040 climate targets

Digital Transition

AI liability
Digital Euro (cryptocurrency)

Migration

Rethinking the Schengen Area and Skills platform
Streamlining legal migration processes

Other Issues

Regulation of addictive platform designs
Increasing competitiveness and autonomy

New EU Commission’s Priorities and Challenges

The EU Commission is facing a period of uncertainty and opportunities, and will take on the following challenges in hopes for a more unified European Union that can face in a strong and committed way the process of enlargement:

Main political priorities

Competitiveness and strategic autonomy
Completing the Single Market
Defense and security
Enlargement and internal reform
Agricultural reform (CAP 2027)

Implementation Focus

Migration
Digital transition
Climate protection
Energy transition
Defense of democracy

Campaign Insights from Christian Skrivervik

Christian Skrivervik from the European Environmental Bureau took the floor and shared insights from the #votefutureEU campaign, which engaged environmental organisations and notable brands like Patagonia. Despite the success among civil society and sister organisations, some of the key takeaways were worrying. For instance, the fact that democratic messages were not top performers in any of the European countries may indicate that the action or the experience of voting is not powerful enough to mobilize younger generations.

Updated Rules on Transparency Register and Access to Facilities

Elisabeth Bauer from the Transparency Unit at DG PRESS provided insights on the EU Parliament Register and Transparency website, emphasizing that MEPs decide their level of engagement. Access information can be found at EU Transparency Register.

This session was pivotal in outlining the EU Parliament’s strategic direction and engaging organisations such as CEC European Managers.

You can download the most relevant presentations of the event here:

EU PARLIAMENT’s Pending legislation and challenges ahead 10th term

EU PARLIAMENT’s Start of 10th term