About the "Hub of Europe" campaign

 

„The Hub of Europe” was a non-governmental campaign targeted at especially young people to encourage them to take part in European Parliament Elections on 7th June 2009.

The 7th June Coalition (formerly the 21th October Coalition) launched a new pro-turnout campaign being a continuation of series of actions taken by non-governmental organizations in order to enhance the voting rate in Poland. As in the case of the “Change the coutry. Go Vote” campaign, which was a success among young voters in October 2007(www.21pazdziernika.org.pl). Even though Polish students have an enthuisiastic approach towards the EU, reasearches show that not many of them show up on voting day.

 

The inititors of the coalition were Polish NGOs - among them was also Center for Citizenship Education.

 

We invited other non-governmental organizations who wanted to take part in agitating young people to take part in EU elections on 7th June to join our Coalition.

We invited everyone interested in enlarging the number of citizens taking part in the elections and in being involved in our activity.

We asked the independent media to grant us with free of charge broadcasting time in order to promote the campaign. 

 

The campaign started in April 2009. The promotion included TV and radio advertising, banners and billboards on the internet, in press and on the streets. We’ve prepaired posters, stickers, T-shirts, badges and organize street happenings (all campaign materials are available on www.7czerwca.org.pl).

 

 

 

Firstly, we wanted to involve as many people as possible in the pro-turnout campaign before the Europarliament Elections.

Secondly, we wanted to broaden horizons of young Poles concerning EU Parliament Elections. Not only in larger cities but mostly in towns and in the country side. 

The main ambition of our Coalition was to change the stereotypical way of percieving Brussels and to convince that Europe is just round the corner, closer to everyday life of each Pole than anyone could think. We wanted to prove that during European Parliament Elections there are no centers or perypheries. Votes given in Paris are not more importatnt than those given in Przemyśl.

 

The idea was to build up tension arround the 7th June voting. According to sociologists, the topic of EU Elections is mostly indifferent to young people and it doesn’t evoke any controversies. That's why we decided to create a competition between Polish towns and cities - it was announced in April that the community having the largest voting rate on 7th July 2009 (proportionally to the number of citizents having the right to vote in a chosen commune, basing on official info given by the National Electoral Commission) will receive the title of the Hub of Europe. The main Prize - a memorial plaque hung on the walls of the city hall - was finally placed after the huge competition in Podkowa Lesna (3211 people entitled to vote, 1634 have voted what gives 50.86% turnout).

There were 300 organizations involved in action as well as a 1500 schools and 50 universities from all over Poland. During the campaign local organizators’ task was to persuade as many people (family members, neighbors, friends) to vote in EU Elections and to take part in the agitation. The main ad was emitted by the biggest Polish TV stations - you can watch it on the youtube.

 Translated by Aleksandra Rakocińska