EU EAST STRATCOM Task Force

4 April 2016 Tbilisi

Simply communicate…

What is strategic communication?

Who is in charge?

Is it science or art?

What is our story?

The EEAS East StratCom Task Force was set up following the European Council in March 2015, which tasked the High Representative to submit an action plan on strategic communication. Objectives of the Task Force

1. Effective communication and promotion of EU policies towards the Eastern Neighbourhood

Images: FLICKR, Creative commons Attribution Generic Licence Our approach…

STRATEGIC TACTICAL Long-term Short-term

• Strategy and plan of • Leading by example activities annually • Supporting high-level visits • Developing messages, why and events with innovative should people care? communication products

• Partnering up with EU • Launching video projects to Member States and local capture the essence of EU allies cooperation

Some examples of our tactical outputs… And some more… EU speaks Russian… …on social media

EU speaks Russian… http://eeas.europa.eu/ru/

Federica Mogherini's statement on the second anniversary of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea became the most trending topic of that day in Russian online media, according to Russia's leading news aggregator, News.yandex.ru. The declaration was read by more than 230,000 unique users: this makes it the most read statement in the history of the EEAS website. Objectives of the Task Force

Strengthening of the overall media environment in the Eastern Neighbourhood and in EU Member States

Images: FLICKR, Creative commons Attribution Generic Licence Main cooperation partners

EU Member States’ focal points

OPEN European Neighbourhood Endowment for programme Democracy

Russian Language Baltic Media Centre News Exchange led of Excellence by the Dutch company FPU Objectives of the Task Force

Improved EU capacity to forecast, address and respond to disinformation activities by external actors

Images: FLICKR, Creative commons Attribution Generic Licence Our weekly “Disinformation series… …Raising awareness Are you a ''mythbuster''? …Disinformation Review

Analysis – Russian media - Narratives Disinformation newsletters: now also in Russian

East