Support the Europa Diary!

Dear President Barroso,

At the Europa Diary partners meeting which was held in Brussels on 15 June, we were very disappointed to hear confirmation from Mrs. Jacqueline Minor, Director of DG SANCO, that you had decided to suspend the publication of the Europa Diary. This decision means that 27,000 schools in all 27 Member States of the European Union will not receive the 2012-2013 edition of the Diary.

We, as the intermediaries between Generation Europe Foundation, the national public authorities and the schools in the different EU Member States, are unanimous in our view that this interruption would cause great damage not only to the image of the European Union, but also to the image and reputation of the European Commission. In addition and most importantly of all it is the schools throughout Europe who request the Europa Diary in increasing numbers, and, by extension, the students who are one of the European Commission's primary communication targets, will no longer benefit from this highly effective and sought after EU communication tool.

We consider that none of the explanations and justifications which have been put forward are acceptable or justifiable in light of the undeniable and increasing success of this project over the past eight years.

The information and feedback gathered by all of us, the national partners involved in this project, which is also confirmed by unsolicited feedback from teachers, clearly refute and contradict any allegations which may have implied that the Europa Diary does not meet the European Commission's objectives of communication to citizens, and young people in particular. This information tool places in front of students eyes, every day and for the duration of the school year, the explanation, illustration and motivation of most European policies.

Mrs. Minor assured us that the "Christmas incident" is not related to this re-evaluation of the Europa Diary's relevance. This is reassuring as we consider, as the European Union Ombudsman has formally done, that the incident is closed. Even more so as the numerous testimonies, the ever-increasing demand for this Diary on the part of schools, and the results of our internal evaluation demonstrate that in spite of this unfortunate incident, its quality and usefulness has not been put into question either by the final users, or by their intermediaries.

The representatives of the various Directorates General who participated in the 15 June meeting also supported this very positive overall evaluation, and publicly expressed their view that the Europa Diary should continue to be published.

We understand that DG SANCO may wish to re-consider its communication policy for the future, and, as a result of this, the tools which it uses to communicate its messages. We also understand that one of the options under consideration in this respect is the publication of the Diary in digital format. We nevertheless believe that this process should not, under any circumstance, interrupt the Diary%u2019s annual publication cycle, thereby depriving students of a book which they value, and their teachers of a pedagogical tool in which they have invested and on which they have come to depend.

We wish to emphasise that even if we all agree that this publication can always be improved, it would not be appropriate to simply cease publication of the paper Diary.

All the signatories to this letter urge you to find a way to continue publishing the Europa Diary at the very least for another year, during which time we, together with Generation Europe Foundation, the European Commission and all other institutions involved in this project, will find the best way to carry it forward.

Today, the Europa Diary is the only publication distributed in the classroom and actually used by teachers, which explains and carries the message of Europe. We call on you to safeguard this common achievement.

We have taken the liberty to copy this letter to all Commissioners responsible for other Directorates General, including those who have been involved in this project this year, as well as to Jose Manuel Barroso in his capacity as President of the European Commission.

Thank you very much in advance and best regards,

Epp Adler

Headest, Estonia

Svetoslava Bancheva

Bulgarian National Association Active Consumers, Bulgaria

Naoise Byrne

Leargas, Ireland

Alina Ciceu

Generation Europe Association Romania, Romania

Theo Eijspaart

Eijspaart Special Projects, Netherlands

Ann Flaherty

I Am Tomorrow, United Kingdom

Anastasia Ghika

Generation Europe Foundation Greece & Cyprus, Greece

Ieva Grundsteine

Agency of International Programs for Youth, Latvia

Maja Gruszczynska

Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej, Poland

Petr Jakubicek

Generation Europe CZ, Czech Republic

Catherine Kesy

Generation Europe France, France

Antonio Lopez de Avila

Generacion Europa Espana, Spain

Tom Meisner Pedersen

Odense Centralbibliotek/Europe Direct Odense, Denmark

Carla Pallotta

Unione Nazionale Consumatori, Italy

Zsofia Perenyi

Association of Conscious Consumers, Hungary