(Brussels) “Several national leaders, some of whom hold public offices, are openly discussing their views of Europe. This could actually make citizens more aware”, in the run-up to next May’s election for the renewal of the EU Assembly. Jaume Duch, spokesman and general manager for communication at the European Parliament, describes the purposes of the awareness-raising campaign and the initiatives that will be put in place to call to the polls, on 23-26 May, the 400 million voters of the 27 member states. “We must admit – he adds – that not all citizens have enough familiarity and information about what the EU and its institutions are, the results it actually delivers. Europe-wide politics is fairly complicated, and the Brussels’ and Strasbourg’s institutions are felt as ‘distant’. Hence the will to tell them about the reality and closeness of the EU policies, their direct impact on the lives of people, families, businesses, regions”. Above all, such awareness-raising campaign “should be aimed at conveying the idea – adds Duch in an interview with SIR as part of the EuropeForUs project, starting today – that the decisions taken by the European Parliament, which we elect every five years by universal suffrage, have a clear, direct and favourable impact on the existence of each one of us. By voting for the European Parliament, everyone can therefore affect, through a democratic method, the direction taken by the future of the European Union”.