PERCEIVE Final Conference has taken place on 19th June: researchers have met stakeholders and policy-makers involved in designing, managing and implementing Cohesion Policy and other EU funding programmes. PERCEIVE’s team presented recommendations on how to implement CP and develop its communication for the coming funding periods. 

Francesco Molica, Communication Officer at European Commission (DG REGIO), shares some thoughts with us. 

What’s your major concern with today’s Cohesion Policy communication?

The communication of Cohesion Policy is indeed facing today several challenges. Firstly, public authorities often do not sufficiently recognise the central role that communication should hold in territorial policies and programming.

Moreover, the public sector lacks specific training on the topic, which leads to a certain unpreparedness in dealing with the dramatic transformation of the contemporary communication environment. This is also partly reflected in the persistent use of technical and complex language in communication measures.

Finally, communication activities tend to be highly fragmented and lack appropriate cooperation across different institutional levels and programmes.

Why do you think PERCEIVE project is important in today's scenario?

PERCEIVE has been instrumental in drawing the attention and stimulating the reflection on a series of key elements related to the communication of the funds which have long been neglected by both cohesion practitioners and researchers.

From the point of view of the EU Commission, the findings of PERCEIVE will prove to be very useful in designing more effective and targeted support in terms of communication to local managing authorities.