Evaluation of information and communication activities towards the EU Member States in the area of EU Enlargement : Final report

The European Commission is committed to providing factual information on past and future enlargements and to cooperating with strategic partners and multipliers to communicate with the public on enlargement. Broad public support is essential in order to sustain the enlargement process. The European Commission has recognised that better communication with the public should be one of the cornerstones of the EU’s enlargement policy. This is the Final Report of the evaluation of the European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR’s) information and communication activities towards the EU Member States in the area of EU Enlargement. The evaluation led by Coffey International Ltd in 2015 finds that DG NEAR has conducted an impressive number of activities with three main target groups in mind, journalists, informed professionals and interested publics. With no imminent accessions on the agenda, the main conclusion is that DG NEAR needs to segment its communication activities and focus on journalists and informed professionals with a programme of planned on-going communication activities, which lay the foundations for a more targeted campaign-type approach to reach wider publics, if and when a new country joins the European Union.