Ordinary people do not keep pace with negotiations with EU, expert

Eugen Revenko, program director at the Foreign Policy Association, said the speed of the negotiations on the Association Agreement with the EU is high and society does not manage to keep pace with them and with the reforms initiated by the authorities. He stressed the central authorities should implement a strategy for informing the population about everything that is connected with the European Union, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a conference held to mark the completion of the project “National Convention for European Integration”, Eugen Revenko said the authorities have instruments for informing the people, but they centered mainly on foreign communication and the ordinary people were neglected. He believes that every person should hear about the EU very often. At practical level, this information should be contained in education institutions’ programs. The EU should be mentioned even at the physical education classes. “The negotiations are held at ministries and they are very technical. But it is society that will benefit from them. It is oblivious that there is not much sector assessment outside the ministries, which would reveal not what should be done, but how should this be done so as to implement new reforms. The people should be told what will change and what the benefits will be,” stated Eugen Revenko. The expert said the ministries focused more on news conferences and communiqués, neglecting the ordinary people, as no meetings are organized with them. If discussions are not held with society, the European integration process may not be understood, especially because there are also some challenges. The participants in the conference said the representatives of society should become engaged in the informing the people about the process of integrating into the EU and the reforms implemented in the country in order to meet the European standards. The project “National Convention for European Integration” had been implemented during October 2011 – December 2012 by the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” and the Independent Analytical Center “Expert-Grup”, in cooperation with the Foreign Policy Association of Slovakia, with financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia.