National Campaigns for a European Choice

Abstract: “National Campaigns for a European Choice” by Annakaisa Suni. Independent work (15credits) in Political Science, Advanced Course, Spring 2010. Supervisor: Sten Berglund. The aim of this study is to describe and compare the European Parliament’s communicationcampaigns in Finland and Sweden before the 2009 European elections. The study aims to answerthe following questions:1. How were the campaigns planned and implemented?2. How did the campaigns adapt to the media’s needs?3. How did structural, environmental and resource factors influence the campaigns? This is a comparative study with two cases, which were chosen using a most similar –design.The material consists of qualitative interviews at European Parliament Information Offices inHelsinki and Stockholm and of campaign documents produced by the European Parliament. The campaigns in Finland and Sweden were both part of a Pan-European institutional campaign.They were both characterised by a high level of professionalisation and also a high level ofmedia adaptation when it comes to timing and format, but not when it comes to content. Onnational level, there were some important differences. In Sweden, the campaign was more clearlyoriented towards distinctive target groups and used less face-to-face-campaigning towards thelarge audience. The political climate in Sweden matched the institutional campaign better than inFinland; the discussion was issue-oriented whereas in Finland the focus was on individualcandidates and on ”what’s best for Finland”.