Advancing European aWAreness on cohesion policy through Responsible media Engagement

2026-07-22

Though popular awareness of the EU Regional Policy has improved recently, there is still room for improvement in the EU's general understanding and appreciation of the Cohesion Policy. This context is characterized by: low perception of the impact of the EU policies, skepticism towards the EU, communication bottlenecks. Since 2021 the awareness of the ERDF and CF has decreased at EU level (49% in 2021 vs 46% in 2023). AWARE will produce and distribute content and information, raise knowledge of and lessen skepticism about the EU Cohesion Policy, and improve media professionals' ability to communicate throughout Europe in order to maximize the effectiveness of communicating CP-related contents. More specifically, AWARE aims at: 1.Promote cooperation between media professionals and specialists (such as companies, associations, advertising agencies, and newspapers) to develop standards for communicating the Cohesion Policy in Europe in an efficient manner that takes into consideration national variations. 2.Through a variety of online content platforms, enhance citizens' contact and participation at the national and regional levels regarding the benefits of the EU's Cohesion Policy. One such platform is an information box that is presented on Fanpage.it’s homepage, two video-educational, three video-reportage, and three podcasts with video components. The videos will be available with subtitles in English, French, and Spanish in addition to Italian. 3.Showcase 7 initiatives that won REGIOSTARS awards between 2021 and 2027 to highlight the significance and integration of regional development. To achieve this 4 info-galleries will be created by Geopop and 3 branded and 3 Instagram pieces will be shared via Fanpage channels. The selection of the formats has been tailored to the characteristics of the online users (educational level, typology of news preferred and age) as well as media stakeholders.

Italy

2025-10-15