Masterclasses cycle about the European Green Deal
EU communication strategies on environmental, energy and climate issue
Brussels | Fall 2019 | IHECS
In the autumn of 2020, Protagoras organised a cycle of three masterclasses aimed at understanding the communication of the European Institutions when they address environmental issues. This series of masterclasses took place within the Executive Master European Public Affairs and Communication, organised by IHECS Academy, a structural partner of Protagoras.
Open to the public and in English, the masterclasses were an opportunity to learn more about the way the Institutions communicate and the challenges ahead as the European Commission presented the Green Deal.
1. The European Commission facing environmental challenges: what communication strategy?
For our first Masterclass, we invited Gilles Gantelet who is Director of Policy, Coordination and Resources at DG Environment (European Commission).
He explained the environmental and energy issues raised by the European Commission and how these were going to be communicated by the Institutions at the dawn of the Green deal.
The discussion was interesting and many people participated in the debate, asking questions on various sectors of environmental policies and related communication issues.
2. Towards a European Green Deal. The role of communication agencies in promoting the EU-wide Ecological Transition
The goal of this Masterclass was to understand how communication campaigns around environmental issues are prepared by specialists in communication agencies working for the European Institutions.
We welcomed Antoine Rivet, Managing Director of GOPA Com and Katrien Witpas, Communication Consultant at Arctik agency.
These two insiders enlightened us on the way they work with the Institutions and on the strategies underlying communication campaigns focused on the environment or its related public policy fields such as energy.
3. Communicating on EU environmental challenges : Insights from academic research
We could not close this cycle of Masterclasses without giving the floor to scientific research that focused on institutional communication and environmental policies.
For this purpose, we invited Professor Tom Bauler, Professor at IGEAT (ULB) and Brieuc Lits, Researcher attached to the Department of Information and Communication Sciences at ULB.
Tom Bauler offered us a detailed analysis of the Green Deal and the various announcements that have been communicated by the European Commission, focusing on the concepts and terms used.
Brieuc Lits presented his research on astroturfing, a lobbying technique used by public affairs specialists to influence the decisions of the European Institutions, particularly in the field of environmental and energy policies.