How to increase awareness of the benefits of cohesion policy among people across Italy? This was the challenge met by the “Cohesion Goes Local” project, managed by Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA). The project ran an awareness-raising campaign running from July 2022 to July 2023.
Italy: Cohesion Goes Local
- 09 September 2024
The campaign involved the production and delivery of a large amount of information in a high variety of formats: multimedia news coverage, social media and surveys, podcasts, animated informative videos, video interviews with high representatives of the EU, and livestreams of major EU debates on the future of Cohesion Policy. ANSA produced updated facts and figures of Cohesion Policy in Italy and its regions, with specific focus on the regional level (in collaboration with Sant’Anna University of Pisa), and organised webinars and forums to debate, raise awareness, involve stakeholders and where possible citizens. Topics covered included the Green Deal and environmental challenges, Digital innovation, Social and economic recovery and growth.ANSA's news items on Cohesion Policy were republished on the websites of more than 20 local newspapers and other media outlets, including II Messaggero, L'Arena, Il Secolo XIX, La Gazzetta di Parma, La Gazzetta del Sud, La Sicilia, Il Giornale di Sicilia, L'Eco di Bergamo, La Provincia di Como, La Provincia di Cremona, Giornale di Brescia, La Prealpina, Alto Adige, Il Mattino, Il Gazzettino, Quotidiano di Puglia, La Tribuna di Treviso, and La Provincia Pavese, all of which have dedicated sections for EU affairs.
The communication actions implemented as part of “Cohesion Goes Local” were very popular. The figures speak for themselves:
- 316 news items published
- 6 million pageviews for La tua europa
- 199 Facebook posts, 408 000 reach
- 195 tweets, 486 000 reach
- 100 Instagram posts, 313 000 reach
- 20 podcasts, 18 000 listens
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Background
DG REGIO has concluded several partnerships (including with media) to showcase EU cohesion policy on the ground, with annual calls for proposals published respectively in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. A large number of projects have thus been implemented in 24 Member States.