4 March 2025
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Editorial: Building Strategic Communication on the European Union in Poland
Background
Developing and refining narratives about the EU should involve leveraging existing structures and networks. Importantly, this approach should extend beyond academic circles. However, European communication is characterised by language from academic registers, conveyed by people who, in the common perception, are experts or academics. This creates a natural distance between communicators and key audiences, given that only 23.1% of the population in Poland, and just 19.0% of men, have higher education (CSO based on the 2021 Census.)
The qualities desirable from the point of view of Polish audiences are proximity and trust, which are overwhelmingly enjoyed by entities related to local government –- local authorities of a given city or municipality [CBOS Social Trust, 2024]. Therefore, communication about European policy should shift from merely explaining international and European topics to local audiences, to actively engaging them in cooperation with local opinion leaders.
That is why the basic element of developing the story about the EU should be the use of existing structures and networks outside of academic circles.
1. Objective: Connecting European issues to local community concerns
A radical change is needed in the operational framework of Polish Regional Centres (Regionalny Ośrodek Debaty Międzynarodowej, RODM). Instead of focusing on ‘abstract’ European issues relating to higher-order values such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, RODMs should shift towards communicating directly on issues that affect people in the local area – such as local problems, identified by the local community, that can be addressed and resolved at the European level.
Our interviewees frequently stressed the need for dialogue on European issues but from the viewpoint of ‘smaller’ cities rather than just Warsaw or Brussels.
One of Radom’s opinion leaders said during our debate on 24 November 2023, ‘We need more discussions in places like Radom, focusing on issues beyond whether the EU should give us one million or ten (million euros).’
Leaders also highlighted the need to move beyond discussion, emphasising the shift from viewing the EU as ‘they’ in Brussels to seeing it as ‘us’ – a community co-created by the EU that acts both locally and in Brussels.
‘As a society, as citizens, we would like to influence what happens in our small homelands.’
2. Task: Countering fragmentation
Clubs and organisations centred on local issues, founded on RODMs, seek to counteract the fragmentation – a key objective of disinformation campaigns, including those by Russia.
3. Task: Focusing on local leaders
Events realised by RODMs must bring together opinion leaders from local centres and European representatives living in those communities. This may include some academics but primarily focuses on local government officials, entrepreneurs and key figures of social life (e.g. librarians, journalists, clergymen and public service providers such as teachers, doctors and administration representatives).
4. Task: Practical effects of meetings
Meetings in such places allow different perspectives to be heard and different concerns to be expressed. At the same time, they promote reflection on how Poles can use the tools offered by the EU to solve local problems.
A meeting, such as the one proposed by the Europe on Edge project, can unite the local community around shared goals and local issues, bridging political divides. This allows us, as Europeans, to identify these challenges and reflect on the tools the EU offers to address them and to counteract the divisions in society that are at the hands of foreign powers, including Russia.
‘Regarding this apoliticism, this common good of ours – I have the irresistible impression, that, unfortunately, literally everything in Poland is being politicised (…). And this time of reconstruction, that we have some common good (…), will be a very long process.’
Cross-party agreements on local issues are possible when addressing matters that impact all or most residents, regardless of political affiliation, age or education. An example of an issue uniting the local community could be, for example, an illegal rubbish dump.
‘They told some people all sorts of silly things like, “We have 250 years of coal.” They just don’t take into account that the extraction of this coal is linked to increasing capital intensity and that it causes environmental damage. And we already have earthquakes (…). There is a need for a strategy, and there is one in the European Union, but this strategy needs to be in Poland as well, a long-term strategy to prevent climate change. Even if someone questions that it is not man-made, that the changes are natural, at least they will protect the environment and we will live healthier.’
5. Task: Building European communications on living local activity centres
It is necessary to strengthen existing local clubs, including by funding their activities aimed at promoting the European perspective. This allows local leaders to invite experts and leaders from other regions. Such discussions could be recorded and used in excerpts in the form of a podcast, broadcast or video. Activities of this kind could, in the long term, contribute to the creation of a cultural centre, such as America House Kyiv.
6. Objective: Networking local activities in all of Poland
Funding should support not only the networking of local leaders with each other but also their connection to the wider community, with regular backing to maintain these networks. Ongoing support is crucial to ensure the continuity of databases, repositories and contacts, allowing for consistent collaboration with established partners, rather than creating new lists and databases with each project. Therefore, relying solely on one-time competitions and project-based activities is not advisable.
One participant mentioned that the protests that have taken place over the last 8 years in Poland, including those defending the Constitution and reproductive rights, have raised citizens’ awareness of their rights. As a result, they know they can protest, write petitions, and send letters to the authorities.
7. Task: Europa da się lubić – remake. A pop-cultural audio-visual format should be created, connecting the above-mentioned communities and raising the profile of local pro-European activities
There is a lack of information and journalistic programmes that speak about the EU in a language other than typical journalism, which at the same time emphasise what local communities live in a European context, also taking into account the everyday life and local problems of people from other EU countries. There is a lack of decentralised communication about the EU – information not from the perspective of capital cities or large, well-informed and well-connected cities. There is a need for programmes that convey the message of the accessibility of EU values, of the EU being accessible to ordinary people.
8. Task: Additionally, a talk-show programme should be launched on Polish Radio featuring voices from district and local communities across Poland. By incorporating call-in listeners, this programme would foster a sustainable discussion format, similar to the Europe on Edge podcast (2023 season), which included episodes with questions from local leaders.
In particular, but not exclusively, such broadcasts should be aimed at young people who are not familiar with the world before Poland’s accession to the EU (which may make it difficult for them to understand what Polexit would actually be like). Such a broadcast would also be a tool to promote those who deal with these issues in local communities and to raise their profile.
Available research indicates that when discussing the positive aspects of EU membership, many people rely on narratives from over 20 years ago, often highlighting benefits such as improved roads or the significance of European funds. However, the strategic benefits of Poland’s EU membership – such as enhanced security and the improvement of civilisation standards through the rule of law – are not sufficiently emphasised.
Public opinion tends to react negatively to new aspects of EU membership, such as the Green Deal or the Pact on Migration and Asylum. Farmers’ protests, in particular, have received strong public support. Meanwhile, there is a noticeable absence of counter-narratives that frame these EU membership issues in a positive light.
We need to develop new strategies at global, national, and local levels. Fresh insights and narratives about the EU, tailored to the current local and geopolitical context, are essential.
‘If we have the approach all the time that raw materials from Russia, cheap labour from China and defence from America, then we have actually set ourselves up for such bourgeois passivity. And today, whoever is sensible knows that we will not go back to these things. The Chinese will no longer produce jumpers for us, because they have completely different ambitions.’
1. The narratives observe a perception of Poland-EU relations in terms of ‘us’ (Poles) and ‘them’ (the EU). ‘They’ impose rules (such as the Green Deal) on ‘us’, it is not ‘we’ as part of the EU who co-create them. What is missing, therefore, is a perception of the Union as ‘us’ – a collective in which we are active participants and co-creators of EU policies.
As the EU has for years been associated with issues other than security and defence, it is important for citizens to realise how much the war in Ukraine has changed in this regard and how important it is from a security perspective to be present in NATO and the EU.
As one of the participants in our meetings noted, the war in Ukraine has changed the approach to defence in the EU. He stressed that this was not only an important issue for Ukraine, but also for the EU itself, which until now had not sent military support.
The war has shown that the EU can play an important role in defence.
Participants also mentioned that not only NATO, but also the EU is an important support for Poland’s security.
At the same time, the EU itself does not always care about visibility on these issues. Not only at the local level, but also at the EU-wide level.
At the same time, participants in the debates stressed that security issues are not visible and communicated insufficiently in the EU.
And this creates opportunities for new roles in the EU for Poland as well as for local communities.
‘From the perspective of Berlin or Paris, these are total peripheries (…) now [the war in Ukraine] we can see that you can look at it as the heart. Of course, maybe not the heart of the continent or the European Union, because it is still on the periphery. But it’s about political themes that have opened up.’
‘We are the security limit of Europe at the moment.’
2. More in-depth research is needed to understand how the European Union is perceived in Poland. This should include data analysis and additional qualitative research, such as individual in-depth interviews or focus groups, to deepen insights.
3. The research aims to describe and explain how the EU is currently perceived, why support for the EU – although still high – has been declining in recent years, and to identify the narratives that citizens use when talking about the EU. These findings will enable the development of targeted communication strategies that resonate with different segments of society.
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Editorial: Building Strategic Communication on the European Union in Poland
Background