Communicating Europe: mission impossible?

Limited resources, multiple audiences, comlicated issues – and did we mention 24 different languages? Little wonder that the task of speaking on behalf of the European Union can seem like an uphill struggle.

By

Ferran Tarradellas Espuny

Posted: 09 February 2015

Image: Thinkstock

Is it possible for a barely-identifiable emitter to communicate to very diverse audiences, with specific interests in 24 languages on issues of great complexity from far away? Well, this is what the European Commission is trying to do.

The diversity and complexity of Europe creates a lot of challenges for its communicators. To start with, it is not easy to identify “who” is Europe. Currently the EU has three presidents (Council, Commission and Parliament), a rotatory presidency (currently Latvia) and European institutions that are not really EU (like the Council of Europe, which also uses the 12 yellow star flag).

Ferran Tarradellas Espuny

Originally from Barcelona, Ferran Tarradellas Espuny is head of the Representation of the European Commission in Barcelona. Previously, he was responsible for regional press in the press department of the Representation of the European Commission in Spain from 2011 to 2013, and before that he served as spokesman for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response in the European Commission and spokesman for Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva. Prior to his career in the European Commission, Ferran worked as chief executive officer of Cives Europe Communication Group and as editor in chief of the news agency Europe Today and of the weekly magazine, El Sol De Bélgica.