Commission to spend millions on Constitution information campaigns

The European Commission is set to pump around eight million euro into information campaigns on the EU Constitution.

The Commission argues that the extra funds will help national governments to raise awareness of the new treaty among their citizens and that the funds should be spent on different projects. "Everything but the propaganda", according to Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, the Commission's spokesman for the communication strategy.

There are two different funding pools available, one of five million and one of three million.

Five million euro is to be distributed on the basis of the member states' population and sent out to the Commission's offices across the EU.

On a possible bias on the part of the governments communicating the Constitution while also trying to gather popular support for it Mr Dowgielewicz commented: "We will not give them money but the tools for spreading the information. It will be our products, not theirs, so there's no conflict in that."

In what is dubbed a "second wave" of allocation, three million euro is to be distributed among the member states according to special criteria judged by the Commission.

Factors taken into account will be he quality of the projects proposed to inform citizens, the level of knowledge citizens have about the Constitution and how the text is to be ratified in that country.

The countries whose citizens know least about the 465-article treaty should be eligible for more support. Member states ratifying the Constitution by popular poll are also expected to receive more from the common coffers.

"If a country holds a referendum, it is in a completely different situation, as it needs to provide information to wider network of stakeholders, more so than in case of countries adopting the Constitution by parliament", the Commission's spokesman said.

Source: EU Observer