Closing the gap : How the European Union turns to communication to engage the citizens in the elections

This essay proceeds from the hypothesis that the strategic communication of the European Union is influenced by the will to solve the democratic deficit and that the concept of the European idea has become a message in the public communication of the EU. It examines how the European project’s challenges with the democratic deficit are reflected in the EU’s usage of public communication and how the EU uses strategic communication to enhance the European idea. The focus is on the mediated message the EU constructs about itself and Europe. It also aims at describing how the EU builds relationships through various communication strategies. The paper addresses the main research question: How does the European Union and European Parliament tackle the democratic deficit through strategic communication? In order to test the hypothesis, reach the aims and answer the research question, the thesis firstly explain how the European idea has developed and how it permeates the strategic and public communication of the European Union. This is followed by a case-study (a discourse analysis) of official EU communication strategy documents and the European Parliament’s institutional information campaign on the 2014 European elections, which highlights how the EU deals with the democratic deficit and present the European idea in concrete ways.