By
N. Peter Kramer
March 6, in the prestigious PressClub Brussels-Europe (PCBE),
EUROCHAMBRES* set out its ‘#Chambers4EU’ campaign to encourage EU citizens to vote in May’s European Parliament elections and to vote for candidates who are engaged and committed to an ambitious, forward looking EU agenda.
Deciphering the jargon!
Only 42% of those eligible to vote actually did so in 2014 and only 52% of people in managerial positions. The campaign will deliver on the memorandum of understanding signed by EUROCHAMBRES with the European Parliament in January in order to help raise these figures.
EUROCHAMBRES President
Christoph Leitl underlined that Chambers are ideally placed to promote the importance of the European elections to citizens. “Our network can decipher the jargon from Brussels into topics that touch the millions of people who work in our member businesses and the millions more with whom they are in daily contact. That is the challenge over the next three months.”
The Chamber network across the EU will engage with candidates and voters through events, the media and social media to discuss and highlight issues like skills, migration, free movement, the environment and climate change.
“Chambers won’t try to tell Europeans who to vote for, but we want them to vote in an informed manner, based on an understanding of the importance and value of the EU.
We need constructive candidates who are willing and able to contribute to the EU’s progress over the next 5 years. How to ensure jobs and prosperity? How to respond to the challenges we are facing? European citizens and the business society are waiting for answers. This is the philosophy behind our ‘Chambers4EU’ campaign,” explained President Leitl.
EU: More strengths than weaknesses
President Leitl concluded on a positive note: “We have spent too much time over the last two or three years reflecting on the EU’s weaknesses, mainly because of Brexit. But Brexit has also had a galvanizing effect in the remaining member states, with EU popularity rising. We must build on this enthusiasm and the EU’s many strengths to move forward together. The European elections are a crucial phase in building a strong future for the EU.”
The question now is, will EUROCHAMBERS succeed where the EU institutions and Euro-parliamentarians, despite their multimillion communication budget, failed. The EU citizens have the last word the end of May.
*
EUROCHAMBRES represents over 20 million businesses in Europe through 46 members (42 national associations of chambers of commerce and industry and two transnational chamber organisations) and a European network of 1700 regional and local chambers. More than 93% of these businesses are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Chambers’ member businesses employ over 120 million.
