WhyEurope

WhyEurope is a non-partisan and independent non-profit organization, which was founded in 2016 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. It aims at highlighting the benefit of the European Union for an average citizen in their daily lives by adopting an innovative communication style. Since September 2017, WhyEurope e.V. is an officially registered association based in Tübingen, Germany. It has approximately 30 members from over 10 European states.

WhyEurope
FormationJuly 2016, registered September 2017
Legal statusRegistered non-profit organization ("eingetragener Verein")
HeadquartersTübingen, Germany
Membership
30
Websitehttps://www.whyeurope.org

Background and History

The initiative was founded by the three students Hans-Christoph Schlüter, Benedikt Erasmus Kau and Mirko Moser-Abt. All three shared a concern about the rise of euroscepticism and right-wing-populism.[1] The outcome of the Brexit referendum was the trigger for them to become active. They decided to publish pictures with simple pro-European messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.[2]

Communication Style

WhyEurope has adopted a communication style they refer to as “Positive Populism”. The founders describe the approach as simple, emotional and personal.[3] They refrain from including difficult, political or legal terms in their slogans and make their messages as catchy and short as possible. Furthermore, WhyEurope aims to trigger positive emotions by connecting political issues to every-day topics such as love or happiness.[4] The initiative aims at pointing out the concrete advantages complex benefits of European integration have in people's daily lives.[5] The founders have repeatedly stated that Positive Populism is to be seen as a simple and emotional communication style, but sustains a foundation of hard facts and evidence.[6] In contrary to actual ‘negative’ populists, they want to provide factual evidence and explanations for their claims.[7]

WhyEurope considers Positive Populism an approach to oppose current populist and extremist movements.[8] According to them, the technical communication of the European Union might have contributed to the lack of support those institutions have received during the past years. Adopting a more appealing communication approach might help the Union to regain confidence.[9]

Independence

Since their foundation, WhyEurope has always emphasized their character as a non-partisan and independent initiative. Despite being in contact with actors of the European Union, they have repeatedly stated their distance to the EU institutions.[10] They refuse to accept any financial support in any form from the European Union and other political institutions or actors.[11]

Relationship to other initiatives

WhyEurope has had a number of cooperations with other pro-European initiatives. Since beginning of 2016, Benedikt Kau and Hans-Christoph Schlüter were in contact with Daniel Röder and Sabine Röder when they launched the demonstrations under the name Pulse of Europe.[12] Pulse of Europe adopted the campaign and the slogan of the campaign “Blijf bij ons” focusing on the Dutch General elections. Together, the initiatives mobilized ten thousands of people joining pro-European demonstrations.[13]

Further cooperations included projects with the Young European Federalists and Laute Europäer[14].

Reception

On 31 January, Marine Le Pen (Front National) filed a parliamentary request in the European Parliament asking about the funding of WhyEurope through the European Commission.[15] Commissioner Günther Oettinger, then responsible person for the EU budget, replied that the Commission has not funded WhyEurope in any way and the name were not found within the central accounting system.[16]

When EURACTIV first discovered the WhyEurope Twitter account a few days ago, we were puzzled by the freshness of the pro-European messages, in stark contrast to the EU’s usually boring official communications.

— Georgi Gotev, Senior Editor at Euractiv

November 2017, WhyEurope has been awarded European Public Communication Award by the European Committee Of The Regions.[17][18] The prize was received during the EuroPCom in the hemicycle of the European Parliament.[19][20][21][22][23][24]

In May 2018, WhyEurope has been awarded the Arno-Esch-Preis by the Association of Liberal Academics in Germany[25].

gollark: No, Iceopolis.
gollark: Did you know that the capital of Greenland is called Greentown?
gollark: Just dense.
gollark: I don't think depleted uranium is very light.
gollark: How do you plan to configurably encode rules anyway?

References
  1. Badische Zeitung, Facebook-Seite "Whyeurope" ist pro-europäisch und populistisch - Kultur - Badische Zeitung (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  2. "WhyEurope: 'Brexit was the trigger. We had to do something'", euractiv.com (in German), 2017-02-24, retrieved 2018-03-10
  3. "Students trial 'positive populism' in pro-EU messages", euractiv.com (in German), 2017-01-20, retrieved 2018-03-10
  4. ""Positiver Populismus" – Co-Gründer von WhyEurope im Interview" (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  5. "Why Europe", Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  6. "Why Europe? – Euranet Plus" (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  7. "About | WhyEurope" (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  8. "CONTENT: Pourquoi l'Europe? Initiation au populisme positif – Master Europe". Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  9. Anne Havenith, Kármán Hochschulzeitung - WhyEurope – Die EU retten mit Social Media? (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  10. European Committee of the Regions (2017-11-10). "Hans-Christoph Schlüter - Raising emotional engagement with Europe - EuropCom 2017" (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  11. "Support Us | WhyEurope". www.whyeurope.org. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  12. "Why Europe – Wahres mit Augenzwinkern – #PulseofEurope" (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  13. Duitsers demonstreren tegen 'nexit': blijf bij ons! (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  14. “Positiver Populismus” – Co-Gründer von WhyEurope im Interview (in German), retrieved 2018-03-26
  15. "Le Pen confuses student initiative with 'EU propaganda'", euractiv.com (in German), 2017-04-28, retrieved 2018-03-10
  16. "Answer to a written question - Whyeurope - E-000605/2017". Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  17. Marco Karp, "Why Europe" macht Stimmung für Europa (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  18. "Auszeichnung für Tübinger Student durch die Europäische Union", cantaloup.fm (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  19. "Preis für Tübinger Studenten: "WhyEurope" wird von der Europäischen Union ausgezeichnet | Universität Tübingen" (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  20. "WhyEurope: Populismus für Europa - EURACTIV.de" (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  21. "Student's project WhyEurope wins Special Prize for communication", euractiv.com (in German), 2017-11-13, retrieved 2018-03-10
  22. "Neunkirchener Hans-Christoph Schlüter mit European Public Communication Award ausgezeichnet", https://www.siegerlandkurier.de (in German), 2017-11-10, retrieved 2018-03-10 External link in |periodical= (help)
  23. Badische Zeitung, MENSCHEN - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  24. Trois étudiants Strasbourgeois récompensés par l’Union Européenne (in German), retrieved 2018-03-10
  25. "Für Europa mit „Positiven Populismus"". obermain.de (in German). 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
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