Reaching out to ordinary people: The EU challenges to communicate its mission (formally and informally) in the Western Balkans (European Policy Brief No.4)

The European Union (EU) and its members are the single largest provider of development aid in the world, with 75.5 billion Euros donated in 2016 alone, which corresponds to 0.5% of its GDP.1 When it comes to the Western Balkans (WB), the data suggest that EU is the largest donor in this region. However, WB citizens are in many cases not aware of this important fact. For example, only one fourth of the population in Serbia knows that the EU is by far the country’s biggest donor.2 Only two out of 40 interviewees in our sample in BiH knew about the EU support provided to their local communities—or even in their neighbourhoods. Moreover, current perceptions about EU integration among citizens of the WB states are mixed, with different narratives being linked to the EU membership. All of this leads us to conclude that there is a need to work more on the EU communication strategies and approaches in the WB region. Thus, we investigate: How to improve EU communication in the WB region?