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Antwerp Province's "Pop up Europe" initiative receives European Public Communication Award  
The European Public Communication Prize 2017 has been awarded to the province of Antwerp for its initiative "Pop up Europe", which seeks to "bring Europe to its municipalities" and prompt discussions about the European Union through entertaining, interactive and free activities for all kinds of public.
 
The prize was awarded today at the European Conference on Public Communication - #EuroPCom - in Brussels on 9 November. A jury made up of EU communication experts selected the most appealing and convincing EU communication campaign developed by a national, regional or local authority. The EuropCom Award aims to honour outstanding EU-related communication campaigns and promote professional communication at all levels of governance.
 
The province of Antwerp launched its new "Pop up Europe" in May 2017 with the aim of stimulating conversations and debates about Europe throughout the province, with "fun, interactive and free activities for everyone", such as exhibitions, lectures, theatre plays, movies, contests, and school activities. The objective is to enable citizens "to discover Europe close to home". By combining a mix of activities for all kinds of audiences, "Pop up Europe" also seeks to reach out to all people, not only well-informed or pro-EU citizens.
 
Giving the Award, the European Committee of the Regions President and Senator the German-speaking Community in Belgium, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, said, "The Pop up Europe campaign celebrates how creativity and innovative local communication can inspire people to talk about Europe. Instead of trying to bring citizens closer to Europe, it brings Europe closer to home".
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Upon receiving the prize, Peter Bellens, Deputy of European Affairs at the Province of Antwerp, said: "The Pop up Europe campaign at the Belgian province of Antwerp succeeds in engaging a broad range of citizens for the European idea by combining high-brow and low-brow activities and turning the EU into a local issue. Thereby it’s not a ready-made one-size-fits-all concept, but a thoughtful program, elaborated in close collaboration with each local community to fit their local needs and opportunities."
 
EuroPCom , the European Conference on Public Communication, is a yearly initiative from the European Committee of the Regions, organised in close cooperation with the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee. During this two day event, over 600 public communication professionals from all EU Member States and beyond gather together to discuss how to improve public communication and discuss major challenges in both EU and public communication. Under the heading "[Re]shaping European dialogues", this year's edition places the emphasis on how to engage citizens in the European project and in public affairs more generally.
 
The programme for EuroPCom 2017 features a wide range of workshops, networking sessions and lectures on issues such as how to tackle Euroscepticism, "Surviving in the world of fake news", "Raising emotional engagement with Europe", "Exploring innovative engagement approaches", "Interactive Cities", the "Age of Big Data", and the rise of "MADCOMs".
 
More information:
Contact:
Carmen Schmidle
Tel. +32 (0)2 282 23 66
carmen.schmidle@cor.europa.eu
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