Newsletter INTERACT | Issue 2011-03 | N8 | Communication

inter 

act 

march 2011 

communication 

a strategic tool for territorial 

cooperation 

INTERACT is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

contents 

04 

no news is good news, 

but is good news no 

news? 

Interview with Raphaël Goulet 

and Peter Fischer of the 

Information and Communication 

Unit of DG Regio. 

14 

joint launch conferences 

via video stream 

RegioClima project 

experience. 

22 

yellow jersey for 

hungary – slovakia 

Travelling across borders 

to promote cooperation. 

07 

talking about a 

revolution… 

How social media have 

changed our ways of 

communication. 

16 

MED EMPORION 

project 

Innovative ways to 

approach the public. 

24 

evaluation and 

communication – make 

it more tasty! 

Recipes for a successful 

evaluation. 

10 

communicating territorial 

cooperation across 

europe 

Good examples of communication 

strategies in the 

ETC world. 

18 

2011 year of the pyrenees 

Promotion of the Pyrenees 

territories in Europe. 

26 

everything you 

need to know about 

communication 

New section of INTERACT 

website for programmes and 

projects communication. 

12 

3 guys perspective 

An innovative way to 

present yourself. 

20 

LATLIT Traffic project 

CBC Programme Latvia - 

Lithuania: reconstruction 

of roads. 

27 

upcoming INTERACT and 

INTERACT ENPI events 

Future events from 

our Programme. 

INTERACT march 2011 02

editorial 

welcome to the INTERACT newsletter 

By Matteo Malvani, 

Head of the INTERACT Programme Secretariat in Bratislava 

Welcome to our first issue of the INTERACT Newsletter for 

the year 2011. This issue aims to highlight the extreme 

importance of the topic for your programme or your 

project in the entire implementation period. 

Communication is a strategic tool that should be executed 

with a special attention. It addresses capitalisation of 

results and multiplier effects in all your activities. 

This issue gives you information concerning the newest 

trends in communication, but also shows examples of 

how they can be carried out in innovative, original and 

unconventional ways with great results. 

Raphaël Goulet, Head of Unit, and Peter Fischer, Communications 

and Information Officer, from the Information and 

Communication Unit of the Regional Policy Directorate- 

General in the European Commission are answering questions 

regarding recent articles published in the Financial 

Times, media strategies for ETC programmes and the state 

of play of the list of beneficiaries. 

An analysis of the impact of social media, is presented by 

Dorothee Fischer, from our INTERACT Point in Valencia. 

Several interesting good practice examples are presented 

and have been collected in the section “Communicating 

territorial cooperation across Europe”: Giedrius Surplys of 

the CBC Programme Latvia–Lithuania–Belarus shows us how 

to approach communication by using innovative language. 

The INTERREG IVC project RegioClima introduces their innovative 

e-conference tool used to disseminate information. 

The MED EMPORION experience in revitalizing markets as 

communications points is then illustrated. Sonia Aizpuru, 

of the CBC Programme Spain–France–Andorra presents in 

the following article the promotion of the Pyrenees by 

the “Working Community of the Pyrenees.” Afterwards 

Irma Astrauskaite, of the CBC Programme Latvia-Lithuania 

gives an insight into the LATLIT: Traffic project. 

And finally Arianna Biriki, of the CBC Programme Hungary- 

Slovakia, tells the story of their unconventional initiative 

for promoting their Programme. 

I would also recommend to visit our website, specifically 

the new section “More About Communication”, which may 

help you in carrying out your communication activities. 

I hope you will enjoy our newsletter. 

Matteo Malvani 

INTERACT march 2011 03

interview 

no news is good news, 

but is good news no news? 

An interview with Raphaël Goulet, Head of Unit, and Peter Fischer, 

Communications and Information Officer, from the Information and 

Communication Unit of the Regional Policy Directorate-General on 

recent articles published in the Financial Times, media strategy for 

ETC programmes and the state of play of the list of beneficiaries. 

By Dorothee Fischer, INTERACT Point Valencia 

INTERACT: Regional policy has made front page news 

recently, in particular due to a 4-day Financial Times 

supplement on Cohesion policy 1 . However, the news 

published was rather negative. 

RG: First of all, I did not find the Financial Times coverage 

so negative. Yes, some headlines came across as very negative. 

But if one reads the articles, one will find that they 

are not as critical as the headlines imply. Some stories 

even highlighted interesting projects. The articles were 

generally well researched and they sometimes asked good 

questions as regards policy choices made by some Member 

States. My fear is more that some people might only consider 

part of the whole story without seeing at the same 

time all opportunities that this policy offers. 

Our policy is under constant scrutiny and is open to constructive 

criticism. In its 5th Cohesion Report, the Commission 

has made a number of recommendations to reform 

the policy in the next budget period. This media attention 

given to the policy will remind regions that they have to 

make the best use of the investment opportunities provided 

by the EU's Cohesion policy, and to communicate its 

achievements to its citizens! 


no news is good news, but is good news no news? 

PF: Some of the criticism, notably in relation to the lists 

of project beneficiaries, is based on a misunderstanding of 

the concept of shared management. For decades the decentralised 

implementation has been a functioning method. 

Nobody wants the Commission to interfere with the selection 

of the hundreds of thousands of EU Regional policy 

projects; programme implementation is the responsibility 

of the Managing Authority; the Commission mainly supervises 

that the rules are followed. It is therefore only logical 

that it is also the Managing Authority's duty to communicate 

the use of the funds in the most transparent way. 

What is true though is that the data about beneficiaries is 

often difficult to compare between Member States. Moreover, 

some countries or regions would need to update the 

information more frequently than once per year as required 

by the rules. Despite of this, we have been working with 

the EU-wide INFORM Network of programme communication 

officers towards making improvements in this area. 

The exchange of experiences and good practice has led to 

significant improvements for a number of programmes. 

INTERACT: How did you react to the Financial Times 

special on Cohesion policy? 

RG: As the Financial Times is widely read, especially among 

the journalists based in Brussels, a media briefing was 

organised, in which Regional Policy Director-General Dirk 

Ahner addressed the main issues and set the record straight, 

notably concerning the alleged slow take up of funds. 

INTERACT: No news is good news, or maybe good news 

is no news… Do you think that negative publicity and 

crisis news will always dominate in the media? 

RG: Negative news, scandals generally attract more readers. 

But communication officers need to target their stories 

to the interest of their audience. For example, spare 

the reader - and the journalist - of programme and EU 

jargon and focus instead on the impact a particular project 

can have in the local/regional context: show how a 

specific project or how the strategies pursued are relevant 

to your audience's current concerns. 

PF: It is clear that this can be particularly challenging for 

territorial cooperation projects, but if you don't overburden 

the readers with the complexities of these projects, 

they might just pay attention. Include the EU dimension of 

the project early in your texts, but save the programme 

details for the end. 

INTERACT: What is your strategy to improve your media 

relations? 

RG: We regularly invite journalists to our main events and 

we organised last year three specific background seminars 

in order to better inform on our policy. Contacts with and 

questions from journalists are channelled through the 

Commission's spokesperson for Regional policy, Ton van 

Lierop. When you deal with the press, it is important to 

react very quickly. The information a journalist needs has 

to reach him/her within the requested deadline. 

Otherwise it may no longer be of any use. 

PF: We have also explained this to our colleagues working 

in geographical units, who often need to consult a Managing 

Authority to get a clarification on a particular point. So 

everyone involved in this has to act rapidly but not keep 

sight of the accuracy of the information given to a journalist. 

INTERACT: What kind of recommendations can you give 

to the European Territorial Cooperation programmes 

when it comes to their media outreach strategy? 

RG: It all starts with a good planning, on which you base 

your communication activities, and in which you identify 

your key target groups, including media that you would 

like to reach. 


no news is good news, but is good news no news? 

PF: A good starting point is always to have a clear programme 

website, which not only addresses the potential 

beneficiaries but also contains interesting content for the 

citizens and the media. 

RG: A key ingredient is to maintain regular contacts with 

journalists, not just to bombard them with news when you 

have one… Establishing personal contacts with journalists 

is time-consuming, but often leads to better coverage of 

your stories as you also are able to better understand 

what kind of information he/she is looking for. And this 

should increase your chances that he/she will open the 

e-mail you sent… 

PF: We are also aware that not every programme has 

experienced communicators working in the Managing 

Authority or Joint Technical Secretariat. It may therefore 

be necessary to get professional help. It is clear that this 

is not available free of charge, but it is something programmes 

should consider, if an honest assessment of their 

communication activities shows that they have not 

reached their objectives. 

INTERACT: One of the new obligations in this programming 

period is to publish the list of beneficiaries of each 

programme in order to create more transparency. You 

conducted a survey on this issue recently, what are 

the main results? 

RG: The study is available online 2 . It contains an interesting 

analysis of some 70 programme websites, including 

European Territorial Cooperation programmes. It made 

a number of recommendations, which have already been 

discussed with the INFORM Network in areas such as data 

comparability and compatibility (harmonising data formats 

and data fields), technical aspects of data collection (degree 

of automation of data collection) or frequency of updates. 

We will take these recommendations into account when 

drafting the rules for the next budget period. 

INTERACT: What should the programmes improve with 

respect to the list of beneficiaries? How could the data 

become more unified and comparable in particular with 

respect to language and information given? 

RG: A number of improvements can be made in the current 

period. Programmes should increase the update frequency 

to a quarterly rhythm, could add a short project 

description - also in another language? - and mention the 

EU contribution separately. A more ambitious solution 

would be to geomap all project beneficiaries, as is the 

case of Hungary or France. And of course, it is important 

to go beyond a presentation of beneficiaries only and 

highlight the projects in general. 

PF: The list of project beneficiaries is an important tool 

and a legal obligation to ensure transparency. But it should 

be developed into a more user-friendly tool. For example, 

who will go through hundreds of PDF pages with thousands 

of beneficiaries? The data is not sortable and therefore 

not very informative. We recommend using a widely readable 

spreadsheet format, such as CSV. In Poland, users can 

sort the projects by size, city, and, if available, also area 

of intervention (environment, transport etc). 

Finally, communication officers should not forget the other 

parts of their programme website: if they present a number 

of project "highlights" in an attractive way (e.g. on an 

interactive map, with photos or short videos and a statement 

from the beneficiaries etc) they increase their chances 

of getting the attention of their target audience. 

INTERACT: Thank you very much! 

1 http://www.ft.com/eu-funds 

2 http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/country/commu/ 

pdf/final_report_erdf_en.pdf 


talking about a revolution… 

The social media have completely changed our ways of communication 

in recent years. But in how far has this had an impact on the communication 

activities of European Territorial Cooperation Programmes? 


Some of your older or let’s say more experienced colleagues 

may still remember the good old times when the 

most high-tech instrument in the office consisted of a fax 

machine. Letters were sent by snail post and answers 

were given weeks later… 

But times have been changing… With the spreading of 

the internet in the middle of the ´90s speed started to 

enter our professional lives. However, designing websites 

and communicating via email was only the first step! At 

the end of the ´90s another revolution was on the way… 

we moved from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0! This may sound 

confusing to you still, but no worries, we have taken a 

moment to make our way through the digital jungle, in 

order to see if this is all so new and revolutionary as it 

sounds and whether the new efforts are really worth it 

for the European Territorial Cooperation world. 

What are the social media? 

On Wikipedia – a perfect example of a social media tool 

itself! – one can find the following definition: “Social media 

are media for social interaction, using highly accessible 

and scalable publishing techniques. They use web-based 

technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.” 

So what makes them distinct from more traditional 

media such as newspapers, radio and television are 

their low costs, interactivity and accessibility – which are 

also their biggest strengths. Anyone can access the social 

media websites, open an account and start publishing 

information or react to it. 

The most common tools being used at the moment are 

social platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn, the latter 

one is exclusively employed for professional networking 



while the former mixes private friendship with professional 

relations and counts approximately 500 million users worldwide! 

Sometimes this is tricky, since you may not want to 

share all of your party photos with your boss, so be aware 

of the information you make accessible to your “friends” 

and whom you accept as contact. Other popular social 

media are blogs where people share information and opinions 

or the micro-blogging tool Twitter which allows you 

to share messages up to 140 characters with your “followers”. 

Both tools are of growing importance, also in countries 

which do not allow for freedom of the press. There, 

citizens are more and more taking over the role of journalists 

and circulate sensitive information and audiovisual 

material, also by employing audiovisual platforms such as 

YouTube, Vimeo or the photo sites Picasa and Flickr. 

A couple of years ago it would probably have taken ages 

to publish the same information in a printed form or it 

would have never reached an audience at all. Thus, social 

media bear a huge potential to reach people and share 

information! 

"We no longer search for the news, 

the news finds us!" 

YouTube Video on the Social Media 

ETC programmes and the social media 

While browsing through the websites of the 80 European 

Territorial Cooperation programmes it becomes quickly 

obvious that in particular cross-border programmes concentrate 

their communications work rather on the “traditional 

media”, that is to say newsletters, press releases 

and a website lacking any interactive functions. This is 

partly due to a shortage in staff and resources. However, 

some of them have installed the “RSS-newsfeed” function 

to which one can sign up by clicking on the little orange 

box in the navigation bar of your website. 

Everytime the website is updated you will receive a message 

in the “reader” of your e-mail programme (which is 

a standard function of the most common e-mail providers 

today). So by signing up to different websites you can 

compile your very own personalised newsfeed. This in a 

way reflects the overall philosophy of the social media 

“We no longer search for the news, the news finds us!” 

it states in a YouTube video on the social media recently. 

When it comes to more elaborated interactive functions, 

the transnational and networking programmes lead the 

way. They have larger audiences to reach and more experiences 

to exchange. “Communication is getting more 

and more social and digital: we have to learn! 

A huge amount of people have Facebook accounts. If you 

get attention of only a part of them, you win.” Darijus 

Valiucko, Communication Officer of the Baltic Sea Region 

Programme, describes their motivation. His programme 

has set up a Facebook Fanpage which counts more than 

250 friends at present. For them it is not a major communication 

channel yet, but it supports their other communication 

activities such as direct mailings and the website by 

repeating the same information. And in the end, time is a 

crucial argument in all this. Browsing through the web and 

updating social media tools can be extremely time-consuming. 

Does this time always pay off and do we reach the 

right people? According to Darijus half of their followers 

are people involved in Territorial Cooperation in some 

way, the rest are rather “random” followers. 

On LinkedIn you can also find various discussion groups 

dealing with European Territorial Cooperation. The information 

shared ranges from job announcements to exchanging 

opinions about state aid rules, though the activity level 

of the group can vary considerably. ESPON is among the 

most active ETC programmes on LinkedIn. They opened the 

“ESPON Partner Café” group with 140 followers so far with 

the objective to ”bring into contact potential partners in 

order for them to create Transnational Project Groups 

(TPGs) to carry out future ESPON projects”. 

A tool only used by three ETC programmes so far is Twitter. 

“Due to its nature it is less interesting than Facebook,” 

explains Darijus from the Baltic Sea Region Programme, 

“yet in times when users need quickly updated info, it is 

the fastest medium that exists.” The North West Europe 

Programme had a very positive experience in this direction. 

They set up a Twitter account to promote their annual 

event last December. During the conference itself people 

could send questions via Twitter that were projected on 

the event website as well as on several screens at the 

venue. Via webcast people all over Europe could follow 

and interactively participate. An impressive 90 tweets 

were published before and during the event. “We are very 

content with the level of interaction reached during the 

event. However, it is early to evaluate its impact in the 

overall communication strategy. Our Twitter account is only 

making its first steps!” Eva Martínez Orosa, Communication 

Officer of the North West Europe Programme, summarises 

their experience. 

The Central Europe Programme also made use of a social 

medium for their annual event last November. They had 

already set up a forum function on their website a couple 

of months beforehand, but despite the 5000 registered 

users, only very few of them contribute actively. The event 

announcement on their forum generated additional traffic, 



although not necessarily more comments. Dana Kaskakova, 

Communication Officer of the programme is trying to 

develop solutions to this dilemma. “As a programme you 

cannot really be provocative and write controversial things 

that make people react. Maybe we should let more wellknown 

people write something “sexy” and promote it.” 

URBACT has set up a blog where the programme staff but 

also project lead partners and other stakeholders can write 

contributions on their projects, an event or other topics 

related to urban development. More than 500 readers visit 

the blog each month. Nevertheless, they face the same 

challenges as to the frequency of the updates and interactivity. 

”We update the blog with a new post twice a week. 

We need to encourage our projects to send us posts otherwise 

they don’t take the time to send us anything. And 

that is quite time consuming for me,” says Laura Caldironi, 

Communications Officer at the URBACT Secretariat. 

"Communication is getting more and more 

social and digital: we have to learn! A huge 

amount of people have Facebook accounts. 

If you get attention of only a part of them, 

you win." 

Darijus Valecko, Communication Officer, 

Baltic Sea Region Programme 

RegioNetwork 2020 

The latest innovative social media tool only addressing 

regional policy stakeholders is the RegioNetwork 2020 created 

by DG Regional Policy of the European Commission. 

This new collaboration platform with more than 1000 subscribers 

offers the possibility to create profiles for individuals 

or regions, share interesting project and programme 

content, set up discussion groups, or announce events. 

Launched at the Open Days last year, it is may be too early 

to draw any conclusions, but it could happen that it will 

substitute or complement some of the other social media 

tools used by the programmes in the future and it has the 

advantage that the users 100% correspond to the desired 

target group. 

Thus, in a way ETC and the social media are still in a sort 

of test phase at the moment and only time will tell which 

sites will survive, become fashionable or will disappear 

completely. Nonetheless, with more than 73% of online 

users using social media sites today, it is a tool that 

nobody can ignore any longer! Or in the words of the 

Beatles: 

“You say you got a real solution 

Well, you know 

We'd all love to see the plan 

You ask me for a contribution 

Well, you know 

We're doing what we can!” :-) 

Interesting INTERACT links 

INTERACT Facebook page: 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/INTERACT/ 

40317896164 

INTERACT YouTube channel: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/INTERACTProgramme#p/u 

ETC programme links 

Baltic Sea Region Programme Facebook: 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Baltic-Sea-Region- 

Programme/115476651806075 

Baltic Sea Region Programme Twitter page: 

http://twitter.com/baltic_sea_prog 

North West Europe Twitter page: 

http://twitter.com/INTERREG_NWE 

URBACT Blog: 

http://www.blog.urbact.eu/ 

Central Europe Forum: 

http://www.central2013.eu/about-central/centraleurope-community/forum/ 

Other interesting links 

Video by Erik Qualman, the author of “Socionomics – how 

social media changes the way we live and do business”, 

explaining the revolution of the social media: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8 

Blog on interregional and cross-border cooperation: 

http://regional-cooperation.blogspot.com/ 

LinkedIn Group on communication in European 

Territorial Cooperation: 

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid= 

2042648&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr 

LinkedIn INTERREG Group: 

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid= 

969297&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr 

RegioNetwork 2020: 

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/regionetwork2020/ 


communicating territorial 

cooperation across europe 

Good examples of communication strategies 

from different ETC experiences. 

By Mikis Moselt, INTERACT Secretariat 

Practical examples are probably the best way to really 

explain how communication can be effective. INTERACT 

has collected stories of experiences around Europe that 

show, more than words could, how to design and implement 

an effective and innovative communication activity. 

The use of new technologies (Project RegioClima), the 

realisation of new “languages” to address the target 

groups (CBC Programme Latvia - Lithuania - Belarus), 

new ideas to enhance information circulation by moving 

toward the general public (MED EMPORION project and 

CBC Programme Hungary - Slovakia) are just some of the 

many ways to reach your goal with fantasy and even fun. 

Of course this little section of our newsletter is just a 

glimpse of what has already been happening around Europe. 

Many more examples could have been cited. All proving 

that a good idea can really make a difference. 



communicating territorial cooperation across europe 


Let’s think outside the box, shall we? Do you read comic strips? 

The CBC Programme Latvia - Lithuania - Belarus has started presenting 

itself as three comic-strip characters. You may not like the shape, but 

it is worth taking a look! 

By Giedrius Surplys, CBC Programme Latvia - Lithuania - Belarus 

If you attempt to describe the visual identity of all the 

ENPI or ETC programmes, words that will pop into your 

mind are most likely “modern”, “photo-based”, “hi-quality”, 

etc. How would you make your programme visible among 

the others? You should either be super modern, super 

photo-based, super hi-quality or think of something 

completely original. 

If you pay attention to the target audience of your programme, 

you would probably hear the words like “complicated”, 

“difficult”, “multi-bureaucratic”, etc. How do you 

avoid hearing these words about your programme? You can 

either combat the complexity, difficulties and multibureaucracy 

or you should make your programme wear 

a human face. 

The CBC Programme Latvia - Lithuania - Belarus has decided 

to select three cartoon animals to represent themselves to 

potential applicants, general public in Latvia, Lithuania and 

Belarus, as well as Europe. Their wish was to surprise the 

target audiences with a totally unexpected brand, present 

a human face to potential applicants and partners and to 

have an innocent and helpful tool for trainings. 




Who 

A wisent represents Belarus because the country is famous 

for this animal. A deer has been chosen for Latvia and an 

elk characterises Lithuania because the animals are popular 

in the Baltic countries. Also, a Latvian word for an 

elk (alnis) is very similar to a Lithuanian word for a deer 

(elnias) and a Latvian word for a deer (briedis) is just the 

same as a Lithuanian word for an elk (briedis). The two 

Baltic nations continually to make jokes about this reverse 

similarity. 

The three animals look like ordinary guys, but with ambition, 

creativity and willingness to cooperate. They do not 

speak Oxford English, but they don’t care as long as this 

does not undermine their communication. That is why 

they can be called perspective. Just like the people living 

in the eligible territory of the programme. Just like the 

programme. 

How 

The deer, elk and wisent have been used in brochures and 

e-letters, as well as the 30-second cartoons representing 

the programme on regional televisions. The elk was also 

made a souvenir to be given away to the winners of various 

competitions and tests of the programme. 

In November 2010, the three characters took part in a 

computer game test for the programme, allowing potential 

applicants to test, in a joyful way, if their organisation, 

action idea and the activities planned fit well under 

the programme. 

Why 

Although the cartoon-approach was primarily chosen to 

help the programme stand out and offer a completely 

unexpected and innovative identity, there have been other 

advantages to introducing the deer, elk and wisent along 

the communication cycle. 

The three characters assist programme bodies in conveying 

a simple, yet important, message to applicants and 

beneficiaries: “We are here to help you, no matter how 

difficult a situation you face or how complicated it may 

be. With a smile you can overcome all obstacles”. 

The animals help the programme in tracing the continuation 

of communication. The slogan of the Programme is 

“Creating common history” and through the development 

of these characters, you can see how the entire programme 

achieves something beneficial. 

Finally, as they are simply some hand-drawn animals with 

flags on their T-shirts, the trio can assist program communicators 

to clearly and understandably illustrate anything 

without insulting anyone. 

It is still too early to measure the results of the animated 

initiative, but if one takes into account the smiles in people’s 

faces while observing the trio, or how frankly the 

participants of the programme events express themselves, 

it seems the three guys are doing their job just fine. 

For more information: 

http://www.enpi-cbc.eu 



joint launch conferences 

via video stream 

RegioClima, an INTERREG IVC Project which addresses the effects 

of climate change on regional development policies, thought of 

an innovative way to launch its activities in June 2009. 




joint launch conferences via video stream 

During this time, a clever tool was being introduced 

and used by project partners. All eight partners were 

connected, for an informational, public meeting (while 

remaining in their own regions), using an innovative 

e-conference tool. Presenting themselves in this manner — 

“live” to the public — allowed partners to share examples, 

with other regions, on how different sectors might adapt 

to climate change. 

For two hours, eight simultaneous events took place in 

Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Estonia, Slovakia, France and Greece. 

The lead partner, Larnaca District Development Agency 

(Cyprus), was extremely satisfied with the outcome. 

No complicated technical equipment was needed - simply 

a camera, computer, projector, screen and a high speed 

internet connection. And to make it even more worthwhile, 

the overall costs were relatively low (EUR 20.000 

altogether) compared to the high participation rate. 

Over 400 citizens, policy-makers, scientists, researchers 

and representatives of private businesses, including SMEs, 

attended the events. Everyone was extremely impressed 

by the success of this technology. So much, that many 

repeatedly mentioned it during the off-line working 

groups which took place following the video conference. 

Due to the outstanding response, project partners have 

now decided to utilize e-tools for various meetings in 

the future. 


www.regioclima.eu 

INTERACT march 2011 

15


MED EMPORION project 

Innovative ways to approach the public. 


The project in short 

Did you ever wonder where and when the idea for creating 

outdoor markets originated? Believe it or not, it dates 

back to the times of the ancient Phoenician, Greek and 

Roman Empires. Nowadays, market trade, in large halls, 

is very similar to what it always has been and is also an 

integral part of the Mediterranean way of life. Consumption 

of fresh, locally produced food showcases a unique 

model of a healthy diet and lifestyle. 

Today, in the 21st century, markets continue to be a central 

place and part of urban life in most Mediterranean 

cities. However, they also play an active role as commercial 

engines and social institutions. At the same time, 

traditional markets are facing an increasing number of 

competitors. Products made in China, supermarkets and 

shopping malls, online shopping, all introduce convenient 

and easy opportunities to purchase similar products at 

comparable prices. 



MED EMPORION project 

How then, might the importance of these markets be expressed? 

The project, Med EMPORION, studies how markets 

in the Mediterranean area are a tool for urban development 

and economic promotion. The project also researches the 

importance of the product proximity (zero kilometre buying) 

as well as how markets can be a tool for social cohesion. 

The aims are to identify innovative tools to modernise 

and promote Mediterranean food markets and to valorise 

their unique potential. 

This project is already being implemented in the cities of 

Barcelona, Torino and Genova, together with de Conservatoria 

dell Piemonte and the Conservatoire des Cuisines de 

la Mediterranée of Marseille and is led by the Barcelona 

Municipal Institute of Markets. 

Markets as communication points – past and 

upcoming events 

There are many various comparative studies including visits, 

public discussions, seminars or information campaigns 

organized by the project. The main objective in introducing 

these activities is to promote cultural heritage and 

reinforce the role of markets in the Mediterranean. 

A special communication highlight has even been introduced. 

Three market festivals have been organised in the 

pilot cities of Torino, Marseille and Barcelona. The project 

partners want to recreate a meeting point where gastro- 

nomic proposals and leisure activities, showcasing the 

Mediterranean character and "way of life", could be fused. 

The idea behind this was to transform these cities, for one 

week, into a full, culinary party focusing on Mediterranean 

food and typical local products. During the festivals the 

cities experienced a week of gastronomic events and popular 

activities such as food fairs, tastings, conferences and 

cooking lessons. 

The most successful event so far was the festival “Mercat 

de Mercats” (“Market of Markets”) in Barcelona, which 

attracted more than 180,000 visitors and achieved more 

than 150,000 direct purchases. As a result, 200 articles 

were published in the media. The project partners were 

very pleased with the highly successful and visible event 

and already expressed their wish to repeat the festival. 

The next festival scheduled, within the Emporion Med 

project, is the market festival in Genova, Italy from 

16–18 September 2011. 


http://www.medemporion.eu/ 




Promotion of the Pyrenean territory at European level; giving visibility 

to its diverse communities and showing the variety of cultural, sports 

and festive events carried out along the year in this territory; crossborder 

cooperation that leads every partner to a new way of working 

and has them interact together… - the “2011 - Year of the Pyrenees” 

is all this and much more! 

A project that seeks to (re)discover and celebrate the Pyrenees with 

the implication of civil society actors and through the organisation 

of numerous communication activities. 

By Sonia Aizpuru, Communications Officer at the JTS of the CBC Programme Spain - France - Andorra, 

and Dorothee Fischer, INTERACT Point Valencia 




The Working Community of the Pyrenees (CTP), responsible 

for the campaign, was born in 1983 with the support of the 

European Council, which wanted to provide the Pyrenees 

with a cross-border cooperation structure similar to those 

in other European borders. The CTP consists of three 

French regions (Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc- 

Roussillon), four Spanish autonomous regions (Catalonia, 

Aragon, Navarra, Euskadi), and Andorra. Its territory covers 

an area of 211.941 km 2 , with a population bigger than 

18 million habitants. The main objective of the CTP is to 

contribute to the development of the Pyrenees, considering 

its challenges and preserving its assets. To achieve 

this, they have set up the CBC Programme Spain - France - 

Andorra 2007 – 2013 (POCTEFA) which is managed by the 

CTP. The current presidency of the CTP, held by the Region 

Midi-Pyrénées, has initiated the project “2011, Year of the 

Pyrenees”, whose activities can also be co-funded 65% under 

the latest call for proposals of the POCTEFA Programme, 

open from 1 February – 3 May 2011. 

So more specifically, what is the Year of the Pyrenees 

about? It is a communication initiative by all the CTP partners 

with the purpose of (re)discovering the Pyrenees. The 

objectives of the campaign are to reinforce the attractiveness 

and image of the Pyrenees, and to promote collaborations 

among Pyrenean tourism actors. The whole operation 

is based on two axes which communicate with and 

complement each other: on the one hand, the CTP promotes 

a common strategy and a media plan including 

media partnerships with regional TV channels, organises 

trips to (re)discover the Pyrenees… On the other hand, 

regional and civil society stakeholders, the main actors of 

this initiative, can shape the Pyrenean identities through 

the implementation, promotion and display of the different 

events that take place in the CTP territory. In order to 

do this, projects may obtain the label “2011, Year of the 

Pyrénées” for their events. 

Thus, the Year of the Pyrenees constitutes a real challenge 

for the CTP: it seeks to (re)discover the Pyrenees by uniting 

all its strengths and actors. It is the first time that 

such an initiative unifies all the Pyrenean actors across 

borders! 

For more information 

how to take part in 

the campaign: 

www.pyrineo.eu 

Latest call for proposals 

of the POCTEFA 

Programme: 

http://www.poctefa.eu/ 

Contact person: 

Sonia Aizpuru, Communication Officer 

at the POCTEFA Programme 

s.laizpuru@poctefa.eu 




It is rare to come across a Cross-Border project which is easily visible 

to the general public. However, the CBC Programme Latvia - Lithuania 

has succeeded with its LATLIT Traffic project. 

This project has been responsible for the reconstruction of roads as well 

as the installation of street signs. All this had clearly improved the quality 

of life within 23 settlements. One could easily conclude that the five 

international campaigns, executed during this project’s implementation, 

educated society as a whole on the border regions of Latvia - Lithuania. 

By Irma Astrauskaite, Information Manager, CBC Programme Latvia - Lithuania, 

and Uffe Wikström, INTERACT Point Turku 




Key issues: Strategy and Communication 

The project involved 16 partners who dealt specifically with 

the traffic safety issue on Latvia-Lithuania border. This large 

group of stakeholders also agreed to utilize mass media as 

partners in the campaigns. Ilze Stabulniece, a project 

manager of the lead partner institution, believes this is 

one success factor for the project. She states, “The project 

must be good and run by professional staff but without 

cooperating and communication with the target groups it 

would have failed. There must of course also be a significant 

budget for such a purpose and in our case EUR 3 Million 

ERDF money has been big enough to make an impact.” 

A BIG project with a BIG impact 

All communication was done with a cross-border perspective. 

It is important to remember that this project did 

affect not only one, but an entire 23 settlements located 

in two countries. The media enjoyed the fact that results 

and impact did not only remain at a very local level. It 

expanded beyond. The involvement of the project team 

is crucial in this case. They know what is planned, what 

is done, and what has yet to be completed during every 

single stage of the project implementation. They also are 

key in communicating these messages as well as presenting 

facts, numbers and practical examples. Everyone plays a 

role as a communicator within the project. 

“Animal” Policemen 

Sixteen animal policemen (one for each project partner) 

helped to present the project. Press photographers and 

television reporters were quickly roused which resulted 

in heightened visibility for the project. For example, 

Policemen Wolf with his colleagues helped school children 

to cross the streets. Locals were also invited to try out 

accident simulators to experience, first hand, how safety 

belts help to save lives. 

Fun-filled events 

The two biggest events called “Hurry safe!” succeeded 

in gathering all project partners to one place. Children 

participated in many activities such as a “safe biking” 

competition while adults partook in an orientation competition, 

which required speed while simultaneously following 

traffic rules. The local policemen prepared these 

tasks for the safe driving competition for adults. 

Quality participants assist in events 

During all events and campaigns the project team managed 

to gather relevant participants (state traffic directorates, 

state police, municipalities, road administration), 

decision makers to partake. It was extremely important 

that their substantial knowledge of the project allowed 

for support and involvement rather than a simple speech. 

“Be interesting, open, friendly and then you will be 

visible!” says Ilze Stabulniece. 

Additional information 

about the project 

Internal and external 

public road and street 

infrastructure was 

improved by preparing the technical documentation 

for 21 sections of roads (4757m) and streets (25621m) 

and reconstructing 27 sections of roads (2702m) and 

streets (9430m). Five international public campaigns 

involving 16 partners helped to raise public awareness 

on traffic safety issues. 

Budget: EUR 3 162 261 ERDF co-financing. 

Project duration: January 2009 – January 2011. 



yellow jersey for hungary – slovakia 

It wasn’t as time-consuming or as hilly as the Tour de France, but 

for 200 kilometers during four days, travelling across the Hungary- 

Slovakia borders, the team of the Joint Technical Secretariat of the 

CBC Programme Hungary - Slovakia deserves a special “maillot jaune” 

(yellow jersey). This was a very successful communication action, 

which brought together applicants, media and citizens in an 

unconventional environment. 

By Arianna Biriki, Communication Manager of the CBC Programme Hungary - Slovakia, and Elise Blais, INTERACT Point Vienna 

In 2009, Arianna Biriki, Communications Manager of the 

CBC Programme Hungary - Slovakia and her colleagues 

decided to organise a new type of major information activity. 

The objective: Inform potential applicants about newly 

opened call for proposals. The motto: Why only organise 

info days or paid advertisements? Why not have an adventure 

and meet the people who live within the region? 

Arianna remembers very well this sunny June day, when 

the entire Joint Technical Secretariat ventured off from 

the Budapest office for a memorable 200 km bike trip 

through the border region: “We were all very excited but 

nervous at the same time. Can we really do it? How will it 

turn out? Does it make any sense at all? Finally we faced 

the adventure, which turned out to be our most memorable 

week of the Secretariat’s life so far”. 

Throughout the four days, the JTS team was zig-zagging 

through the Hungarian and Slovak border. They met representatives 

from thirteen villages and towns, their beneficiaries, 

potential beneficiaries and unsuccessful applicants 

alike. Due to extensive preparatory work prior to the event 



yellow jersey for hungary – slovakia 

(sending informative documents regarding the programme, 

invitations, leaflets to the mayors, etc.) the local media, 

newspapers and inhabitants were well informed of the 

topics covered, meeting dates and locations. 

"By crossing the border every day 

we symbolically tied the border region 

and facilitated the joint brainstorming 

among Hungarian and Slovak applicants" 

A secondary goal for this project was to put the programme 

on the map and to display that the programme is a 

visible, approachable authority. For approximately 50 km, 

from Esztergom, Hungary to Komárno, Slovakia, the JTS 

team was accompanied by the Head of the Managing 

Authority, Brigitta Mikulás as well as the CEO of VÁTI 

Nonprofit Kft (the host organisation of the JTS), János Dr. 

Benedek. In Komárno, an open-air conference was organised 

to launch the second call for proposals with the participation 

of the Slovak National Authority as well. Arianna 

outlines the importance of the presence of such high-level 

stakeholders in a very non-conventional set up: “It was 

very important that those two organisations were represented 

at this event, as they are responsible for managing 

EU Funds in the HU-SK programme. Their presence highly 

contributed to the success of the press conference. 

Meeting potential applicants in a non-institutional environment 

really facilitated open communication”. 

Media work was a key-factor in meeting the objectives of 

the tour. Everyday, a short press release was published 

outlining the proceedings, whereabouts and even invitations 

to join the group. The action received excellent coverage 

from local TVs and newspapers and raised the level 

of interest within the population: “From the third day a 

colleague from the West Pannon Regional Development 

Agency acted as our guide. We visited a little village of 

Darnózseli, Hungary, where the municipality had been 

planning a ferry port between the Danube towns of Bős 

and Remete. To our surprise, local people, who had read 

about the bike tour in the local newspaper, joined right in. 

In Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary, the Mayor was awaiting us 

on his bike and showed us around the city. On our final 

day a Slovak local winner project holder led us to our final 

destination of Bratislava”. 

Ferenc Márkus, Director of the JTS "It was pretty amazing how people reacted 

on our initiation and contributed to this 

tour by joining us for a ride" 

Arianna Biriki, Communications Manager at the JTS 

Last, but not least, this tour was an excellent chance for 

teambuilding: “It was a special opportunity to get to know 

each other from a very different perspective than office 

life. Now we have a joint memory tying us together 

because it was so out-of-ordinary.” 

Legs were heavy after the last kilometers of the tour, but 

for a good reason: ‘Build Partnerships’, “not only between 

Hungary and Slovakia, not only between programme, media, 

population and beneficiaries, but also among ourselves.” 


http://www.husk-cbc.eu/ 


evaluation and 

communication – 

make it more tasty! 

According to Article 4 of the Implementing 

Regulation (EC) No 1828/2006, ETC programmes 

are for the first time obliged to 

conduct a mid-term evaluation of their 

communication activities to be submitted 

with the annual report 2010. The new duty 

also raises numerous questions as to the 

methodology, timing, and form of reporting. 

INTERACT organised several evaluation seminars last year and would 

like to share some of the “recipes” found that should help you make 

your evaluation and communication more successful. So let’s explore 

some easier ways to help you with this! 


Drafting a communication plan is just like baking a cake. 

You decide on a number of key ingredients (target groups, 

tools, timing, budget), mix them all together and fill them 

into a nicely structured form. However, are you sure you 

decided on the right components and quantities? Maybe 

you should add a little spice here and there or increase 

the baking temperature to make the result crunchier? 

With respect to the state of play of their communication 

plan, programmes are most likely asking themselves the 

same questions. By 30 June 2011, all programmes are 

required to give feedback to whether their plans are still 

in line with the overall programme and EU objectives or 

not. They should also report whether they have succeeded 

in highlighting EU added value among a general public (or 

other target groups) and whether they need to improve or 

adapt their plan in the remaining three years. 

Measuring the impact of communication activities can be 

quite challenging since the cause and effect chain is not 

always logical. It also presents difficulty because it can 

sometimes only be assessed much later than expected, 

even after the end of the programming period. It is easiest 

to begin with a basic question such as: “Are we providing 

the right communication means and products to the right 

people through the right channel at the right moment?” 

Of course, you may have a 100% success rate if your overall 

objectives were very low from the very beginning. For 

example, if your ambition was to distribute a brochure to 

a limited target group. However, this does not always aide 

in your endeavour and may even tarnish your programme’s 

image. Or, as in the words of the European Commission’s 

DG Communication, “You can boost ‘evaluation success’ by 

setting trivial objectives, or you can promise vast changes 

you will never deliver. Neither does the standing of the 

communication department much good.” 

"You can boost ‘evaluation success’ by setting 

trivial objectives, or you can promise 

vast changes you will never deliver. Neither 

does the standing of the communication 

department much good." 

DG Communication, European Commission 


evaluation and communication – make it more tasty! 

A good way to start is by distinguishing between the different 

levels of output and the results and impact which 

can be measured within the area of communications. This 

will be undoubtedly helpful for your “normal” annual 

reports as well: 

• Communication output: the actual product of a communications 

activity, e.g. number of conferences held or 

press releases distributed. Weakness: gives no information 

on how many people attended the events or read the 

press releases. 

• Communication outgrowth: measures how the target 

public demands and receives the output produced (e.g. 

is the response rate to invitations, media clippings, etc.) 

Weakness: no information is given regarding what they 

think about the quality of the tools 

• Outcome I awareness/knowledge: knowledge gain 

after communication activity 

• Outcome II attitude/perception: (positive) perception 

or change of perception after communication activity 

• Outcome III behaviour: change of a certain behaviour, 

e.g. influence on regional policy 

Please note: these last indicators refer to the new 

approaches to evaluation. These new approaches tend to 

try and capture the impact and changes brought about by 

a programme. 

What has INTERACT been doing to help? In 2010, a series 

of seminars was organized surrounding the topic of evaluation 

and also with the evaluation of communication activities 

used to prepare the programmes for the annual report 

in 2011. Recurring questions focused around the methodologies 

of evaluation and whether one should make use of 

an external evaluation expert or not. One excellent piece 

of advice: programmes should recall themselves the aim 

of the evaluation and the assessment and possible adaptation 

of the communication plan if necessary. If one examines 

five years back, it can be seen that completely different 

communication tools were fashionable and some of 

the modern tools, such as the social media, were just about 

to be born. Thus, in addition to the annual communication 

statistics, the programmes should be able to tell whether 

they are still “on the right track” with respect to their 

tools and target groups. Whether this analysis is being done 

by an external expert or by your internal staff does not 

really matter. 

An interesting tool kit, for this purpose, was developed 

by the French DATAR (Délégation interministérielle à 

l'Aménagement du Territoire et à l'Attractivité Régionale). 

It contains a list of possible communication indicators, 

structured by topics such as online tools, press relations, 

project communication, publications, advertisements or 

events and gives helpful advice on how often they should 

be measured. One part even suggests satisfaction surveys 

that programmes may use among their project beneficiaries 

or other stakeholders they are working with. If you are 

interested in receiving the toolkit (which is only available 

in French for the moment), please contact Marie-Laure 

Rovarino at the DATAR: Marie-Laure.Rovarino@asp-public.fr 

Another helpful example is the Central Baltic Programme, 

which has just finished its on-going evaluation with a major 

part specifically dedicated to questions regarding communication. 

It is one of the distinctive characteristics of the 

programme that they have 3.5 out of 13.5 staff members 

assigned to communications. Because of this, it is considered 

a horizontal task with 1.22% out of their total budget 

being spent in this area. In comparison: many other programmes 

often do not even reach 0.5% of their total budget 

spent on communications. With the evaluation the Central 

Baltic Programme therefore wanted to know whether this 

effort pays off and where they need to readjust their 

strategy. 

External evaluators conducted extensive desk research and 

open-ended interviews. Furthermore, they held a survey 

among all approved projects. One of the main results seen 

was the considerable increase in media coverage, although 

radio and television still remained a difficult endeavour. 

The approach to focus on specialised articles, rather than 

on standardised press releases, also paid off. 

Nevertheless, the evaluators recommended communicating 

key messages in a clearer way, also through the use of 

social media. The programme’s feeling, however, is that 

their main target groups are not really utilizing these tools 

and they are better reachable via more traditional media. 

So these are just two practical examples of what can be 

done. There is definitely not the one recipe that works for 

all ETC programmes. The individual contexts and maturity 

of the programme need to be taken into consideration 

while keeping the objective clear in your mind at the 

same time. 

For all those programmes that have not yet 

participated in any of the INTERACT evaluation 

seminars so far, they can still do so on 12 and 13 

April 2011 in Valencia (Spain). 

More information on the seminar can be 

found in the calendar section of the 

INTERACT website. 


new on INTERACT website 

everything you need to know 

about communication 

How do I prepare a communication strategy? What are the community 

requirements regarding information and publicity? What should I know 

about media work? 

All of your questions can be answered in our newly created 

section titled “More About Communication” where we offer 

didactic information and tips for programme and project 

communication managers. You will find useful background 

documentation as well as general presentations, which can 

be used for your own communication work. 

Check it out! 

http://www.interact-eu.net/communication/ 

communication/274/6209 


upcoming INTERACT and INTERACT ENPI events 

12-13 April 2011 Evaluation of European Territorial Cooperation Programmes 

Valencia (Spain) 

http://www.interact-eu.net/events/event_on_evaluation_of_european_territorial_cooperation_programmes_valencia_ 

spain_april_12_and_13_2011/14/7784 

13-14 April 2011 Financial Management in ETC and IPA CBC Programmes 

Alicante (Spain) 

http://www.interact-eu.net/events/financial_management_seminar/14/7947 

19 April 2011 Mediterranean Lab Group meeting; specific focus on natural risks and maritime safety 

Genoa (Italy) 

http://www.interact-eu.net/syn_capit_events/mediterranean_lab_group_meeting/48/8152 

11-12 May 2011 Monitoring Systems Networking Meeting 

Gdansk (Poland) 

http://www.interact-eu.net/programme_management_news/monitoring_systems_networking_meeting/36/7972 

25-26 May 2011 Conference "European Cooperation Growing Smart" 

Budapest (Hungary) 

http://www.interact-eu.net/events/conference_“european_cooperation_growing_smart”/14/8211 

For more information please see the events 

section of the INTERACT website at: 

http://www.interact-eu.net/events/14?year=2011 

request a topic 

At INTERACT one of our stated aims is to be 

responsive to the needs of our stakeholders. 

Therefore if you would like to request a topic for 

our future newsletters, please e-mail INTERACT 

Secretariat at interact@interact-eu.net 


© INTERACT 2007-2013 

Unless otherwise stated, the copyright of material published in this newsletter 

is owned by the INTERACT Programme. You are permitted to print or 

download extracts from this material for your personal use. This material is 

allowed to be used for public use, provided the source is acknowledged. 

None of this material may be used for any commercial use. 

Contact: 

INTERACT Programme Secretariat 

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Publisher: 

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INTERACT Communications Group. 

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Newsletter INTERACT | Issue 2011-03 | N8 | Communication

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