“Communicating the EU to citizens”, Siena hosts the Italian Europe Direct Centers: “Europe is not a bureaucratic construction, too many fake news. It is our home”
“We are called to listen, perhaps that is what is missing in European communication: to hear what citizens would like from the EU. We have to puncture the bubble, it is useless among pro-Europeans, we have to talk to talk about Europe has understood it“. The food for thought comes from the words of Raffele Torino, professor at the Roma Tre University and coordinator of the Europe Direct Center for the Capitoline university. “Communicating the European Union to citizens. Pathways and new challenges of universities in the territories ”was an important round table to initiate a dialogue between all the universities chosen by the European Commission to host the new generation of Europe Direct desks and other universities engaged in European communication aimed at citizens. The meeting, organized by Europe Direct Center of Siena, moderated by ‘our’ director Katiuscia Vaselli and broadcast online on the social channels of our newspaper, it was opened by the Deputy Rector of the University of Siena Sonia Carmignani who underlined the centrality of the role of Europe Direct Siena for the didactic, research and third mission objectives of the University. After her, the order of the interventions included the contribution of Massimo Pronio, Head of the Communication Team of the Representation in Italy of the European Commission. “We must make an effort to finance the Europe Direct Centers on the territory, they are the first contact between citizens and European institutions. Community values must be the beacon at the worst times, ”he said. A Massimiliano Montini, coordinator of the Europe Direct Center in Siena, it was instead touched to take stock of the activity of the fifth year just passed and declared the objective of the meeting with the other Italian structures: “The idea is to create a network of Europe Direct centers, a critical mass in support of a good communication on the work of the EU that also fights fake news against it “.