Take Action on EU propaganda

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• How to Stop EU Propaganda [PDF]

What we need to do to stop EU Propaganda

You can make use of the examples in the Occasional Paper Federalist Thought Control to push for these proposals:

a. Impartiality and Objectivity in EU Communications
The EU must adopt guidelines similar to those of the UK Government on what constitutes legitimate advertising and information campaigns. The key principles to be entrenched in such rules include a commitment to impartiality and objectivity. MEPs sitting on the budget and budgetary control committees supervising such expenditure should conduct an annual review. Public funding to organisations campaigning for the UK ’s entry into the Euro must be stopped and such overtly political organisations should return any funds they have already received from the EU.

b. The need for an independent watchdog
Here in the UK, we recommend that an independent watchdog be established to monitor such activities, ideally in conjunction with the ITC/Broadcasting Complaints Commission, and the Parliamentary Ombudsmen in Westminster and Brussels. This post should be accountable to Parliament and based upon, or incorporated into, the Electoral Commission. It will have the following remit:

1. To monitor the budget of the European Union to uncover spending on propagandist activities.
2. To report publicly upon such misuses of taxpayers ’money.
3. The code of conduct for British civil service communication departments represents the ideal yardstick by which EU communications should be interpreted.
4. To have the power to force the withdrawal of offending material published by the Communities or the Government.

c. Britain’s Civil Service should follow its own guidelines
The UK Government should wind up its National Changeover Plan. The Civil Service must ensure that any information is balanced and tells businesses of the costs that they will incur if the single currency is adopted, and the damage the Euro could do to the economy and their business.

d. Stop EU Propaganda in schools
Under the binding terms of the Education Act 1996 EU Propaganda is illegal in the classroom. The Education Act also establishes a complaints and enforcement procedure to stop indoctrination.

If you know of EU propaganda being distributed in a school you can complain to the relevant Local Education Authority (LEA), Governing Body and Head Teacher. If they do not act on your complaint and continue to promote biased material to schoolchildren, you can complain to the Secretary of State for Education.

UK Secretary of State for Education should write to schools, colleges and Higher Education establishments to remind them of the requirement that teaching on European issues be balanced. In particular she should remind them that Section 409 of the Education Act 1996 allows for a legal process to redress any breaches of the Act. The Education department should make available a list of organisations that can be approached for speakers and information on European issues, and make it clear that Eurosceptic sources should be provided if EU–produced teaching guides are being used.

The Secretary of State for Education can be contacted at:

Department for Education and Skills, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT
Tel: 0870 001 2345

e. Stop EU Branding and Advertising
The use by the European Union of ambient marketing and subliminal advertising to create a sense of European citizenship should be ended. By this, we mean the EU emblem, and the sycophantic statements that are so often plastered over projects that the EU supposedly funds, town twinning exercises, or the appearance of the EU flag on driving licences and car number–plates. A Ten-minute-rule Bill would suffice, requiring, for instance, that reference to EU budget lines paying for public works be accompanied by a caveat spelling out the UK net contribution to the EU budget for that year; that EU logos be accompanied by the Union Flag; and that planning permission is reinstated for flying the EU flag (this has been removed under the Blair Government).

You can help these proposals become law by writing to the people below:

1. Write to your local newspaper
Most local and regional newspapers are keen to hear the views of local people, and not just on local issues. The letters page is often the most widely read section of the paper, and with a little effort your message can easily reach tens of thousands of people.

2. Write to your MP and MEP
This is an important way of influencing political decisions. If politicians receive enough letters then they are more likely to act. Please base your letter on the above proposals. Be sure to ask your MP to pledge to take action against EU Propaganda. Hints for dealing with MP’s:

• Conservative: tell them that a committed Eurosceptic stance will make you more likely to vote for them in the future.
• Labour: tell them you are not happy with the way the New Labour Government’s policies are pushing Britain into a Federal European Superstate. Unless they are prepared to pledge their opposition to an ever-closer Union you won’t vote for them in the future.
• Liberal Democrat: save yourself the cost of a stamp.

3. Write to the European Commission
Urging them to support the adoption of rules about what the EU can disseminate as information.

They can be contacted at:

The European Commission, 200 Rue de la Loi, B-1049, Brussels, Belgium
Tel: 00 322 299 1111

We thank you for your dedication to this campaign