Council of the European Union Brussels, 7 March 2019 (OR. en) 7262/19 API 21 INF 52 OUTCOME OF PROCEEDINGS From:                General Secretariat of the Council On:                  26 February 2019 To:                  Delegations Subject:             Working Party on Information (Communication issues) 1.    Adoption of the agenda The agenda in CM 1814/1/19 REV 1 was adopted. 2.    Presidency's communication activities a)    Presidency's communication strategy and web site –     Presentation by the Romanian Presidency The Romanian Presidency presented its social media strategy. The most important platform for the Presidency is Facebook, followed closely by Instagram and Twitter. The Presidency also informed delegations about its digital collaboration with the former Austrian Presidency for the handover and with the Finnish and Croatian colleagues at the start of the new presidency trio. b)    Former Presidency's communication activities –     Information by the Austrian delegation 7262/19                                                                   NH/ct                     1 COMM                                            EN

The Austrian delegation gave an oral presentation on their communication successes during their Presidency. 3.    Upcoming European Elections - state of play of electoral campaign (this point was discussed in the presence of the representatives of the European Parliament) –      Presentation by Stephen Clark, Director, DG COMM, European Parliament Key points of the presentation: •     The EP has 36 liaison offices in the member states with 300 staff. •     This time the EP logo is not used, as the aim is to appeal to voters about the EU as a whole. •     Target of the campaign ThisTimeI'mVoting is young first time voters and people who have never voted before. •     Challenges of the campaign are: an anti-establishment mood; distrust of institutions, experts and media; media fragmentation filter bubbles; “fake news”; trolls and abuse and breakdown of traditional loyalties. •     This time the elections have a lot of media interest because of a totally different political situation from previous elections. In response to the delegations' question on the subject, Stephen Clark explained this is due to the fact the politicians are bringing up the subject in their interventions in the media. •     The campaign already has around 18,000 volunteers: 10 per cent of campaigners are volunteers. •     Very active social media campaigns on all platforms are proving to be effective : around 190,000 citizens have already signed up to the Pledge to Vote. 7262/19                                                                    NH/ct                        2 COMM                                               EN

•      Upcoming events: launch of the Hero movie, which is an online film based on babies being born across Europe and inciting people to vote for their future on 10 April and aEurovision debate between the lead candidates (Spitzenkandidaten) operated by EBU on 15 May. •      In response to delegations' questions on the role of the Council in the campaign on ground level, Stephen Clark replied that it is brought up in cooperation with the local authorities at local level. •      Jan Michal (Head of Unit DG COMM, Commission), thanked delegations for their questions and confirmed to get back to them bilaterally. Useful links: www.thistimeimvoting.eu http://www.europarl.europa.eu/at-your-service/en/stay-informed/information-offices-in-the member-states www.what-europe-does-for-me.eu (mobile version Citizens App) 4.     Recent trends in web and social media and how the GSC responds –      Presentation by the General Secretariat of the Council The GSC gave a presentation on recent trends in web and social media and how the GSC responds. Delegates are encouraged to make use of social media content offered by the GSC for re-use on their own channels (videos, infographics etc.). The GSC would be happy to offer trainings or workshops to delegates interested in learning more about social media management and/or content creation, incl. on mobile devices. An overview of GSC-managed social media accounts can be found here: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/contact/social-media/ Audio-visual materials produced by the GSC (both raw footage and edited packages) can be found here: https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/ 7262/19                                                                      NH/ct                    3 COMM                                               EN

5.    AOB The Chair reminded delegations about the EU Institutions' Open Day which takes place on 4 May this year. LT suggested to invite representatives of social media platforms to the next meeting of the WPI to give an update on their progress in implementation of the Code of Practice. UK thanked the Chair and the delegations for the good cooperation, this meeting being the last before 29 March. 7262/19                                                                  NH/ct                     4 COMM                                            EN