PROJECT
"Europa a Cieli Aperti" (Open Sky Europe) is a television information programme on the current political and institutional state of the European Union, carried out by UNINETTUNO and financed by the Representation of the European Commission in Italy.
The thread of this production has been the theme of the Union’s future: it was meant to provide an exhaustive view of the historical, political and institutional situation of the European Union through the voices of its protagonists (political well-known figures, diplomats, representatives of the Community and academic institutions), after the enlargement process and the revision of the Founding Treaties which ended in October 2004 with the signature of the European Constitution in Rome.
In a so sensitive and particular historical phase of reflection, as the one in which the Community construction is currently involved, it is fundamental to face the issues related to the future of the European Union as stimulus for the development of an interest not only economic but above all cognitive and participative to the Union’s dimension. Therefore, the future of the European Union, as future of civilisations and values, before being a question merely relegated to the institutional alchemies of the debates among governments.
The creation of a culture of a participative and aware European citizenship, as well as the solicitation to a process of cultural and civil identification towards a reality already consolidated as the EU, the most effective and original experience of indissoluble peace among the peoples of the old continent, cannot set aside today from the in-depth analysis of some of the most important elements as the history of the European Integration; the tasks, structure and daily activities of the Union; the nature and functions of the institutions; the political and social features of the Member States as well as from themes like the international role of the Union, the security and defence policy, collaboration in justice and home affairs, the rule of the single currency, the Lisbon Strategy, etc.
The priority objective of the project was to spread a deep awakening on important issues related to the process of European integration and to the future of the Union.
Through a televised product of high quality, which conciliated both the current affairs and the historical witnesses, the project aims at stimulating the reflection of the community construction and the main challengesposed by the European construction, trying this way to develop a process of participation, integration and idem sentire that stimulates interest, curiosity and solidarity in the audience.The initiative, unique of this kind, is addressed to young people, students and professionals who regularly watch the NETTUNO satellite channels and is this way finalised to valorise a privileged place of confrontation like the Italian university in the wider debate on the future of the European Union. These groups will be the main protagonists of the future Europe. For them, the future of Europe cannot not represent an articulated moral, civil, cultural and political scenario, in which it is possible to build their own personal life scenario. The news, underlining the incidence of the European Union in the daily life of its citizens, also when it is not perceived and identified as such, would represent an information and confrontation point for those who are building personal training paths and are acquiring professional skills. The priority communication themes are dealt with using a harmonious and equilibrated model that, by hinging on the formation of a real culture of the European citizenship, may fit adequately inside the didactic model of the distance courses.
More specifically, the project saw the production and broadcasting of a short news report that analyses more in depth European issues, broadcast every day on RAI NETTUNO SAT 1 and 2satellite TV channels and on the air channel RAI DUE during NETTUNO’s broadcasting schedule, in more daily editions for a six-month period, as well as the production and broadcasting of digitalised audiovisual supplementary materials. Each individual programme, lasting about 5 minutes, was realised using computer graphics (photographic material, videos and text material), in the form of quick news reports using a sharp and colloquial language.
The thematic sections into which the programme is structured, broadcast weekly for 25 weeks, are: the History of the Union; the Week’s Agenda, the Institutions of the Union, the Countries of the Union; the Great Themes of the Union.The main sources that were used for the editorial activity were, apart from the executives of the Commission and Parliament Representations in Italy, the European Union website (europa.eu.int), and its many sub-sections and databases and the website of the Representation of the European Commission in Italy (europa.eu.int/Italia).