NEW EP WEBSITE - WHAT EUROPE DOES FOR ME

Philenews 19 November 2018

Seeking to bring the EU closer to citizens, the European Parliament has launched a ground-breaking new website demonstrating the EU’s positive impact on individual citizens.

The interactive, multilingual, ‘What Europe Does For Me’ online website, put together by the European Parliamentary Research Service, presents hundreds of easy-to-read, one-page notes giving examples of the positive difference that the EU makes to people's lives. Users can easily find specific information about what Europe does for their region, their profession or their favourite pastime.

Launching the new website in Strasbourg, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani noted that it provides clear, jargon free answers to Europeans’ questions on what the EU has done for them.

“It will be a valuable tool in bringing Europe closer to citizens,” he added.  The most recent Eurobarometer survey, published last month, found that 68% of respondents agreed that their country has benefitted from EU membership.  But there have been very few attempts to list the concrete benefits of EU membership to ordinary people across the EU.  Ahead of the European elections in May next year, the EP hopes that this website will illustrate to what extent the EU makes a difference.

Around 1800 one-page notes are available to read, share or reuse as online pages or as PDF files. They are organised in two main categories on the website. The first section, ‘In my region’, allows users to select the place where they and their family live or work. How is Europe present in our towns, cities and regions? This section of the website covers over 1400 localities in every part of the European Union.

The second section of the site, ‘In my life’, lets each user select from 400 ‘one-pagers’ to find things that are important to her or to him personally. How does the EU affect, for example, families, health care, hobbies, travel, security, consumer choices and social rights? How does the EU support people in their professional lives in dozens of jobs - from beekeepers to bus drivers to brewers? What has the EU done for people who enjoy leisure activities such as sport, music or watching television? A series of podcasts in a growing number of languages is also available for this section.

The notes provide a snapshot of EU action for citizens - based on interesting examples, with onward links to further information - rather than trying to list everything the EU has ever done.

They will be complemented, in a third section of the site, with longer briefing papers on EU policies ‘in focus’, which outline some of the achievements of the current parliamentary term, and the outlook for the future, with a special focus on public opinion and citizens’ concerns and expectations of EU action.

This website has been put together by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), in conjunction with the Communications and Translations services of the European Parliament.

What Europe Does for Me site : https://what-europe-does-for-me.eu/en/portal

Edited by Bouli Hadjioannou