EU pours £3.8bn into 'brainwashing campaign'
By Robert Watts, Whitehall Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:48pm BST 30/06/2007
The European Union is spending £3.8 billion a year on "propaganda" to win over its sceptical citizens, it is claimed
As well as publishing a plethora of pamphlets and employing an army of public relations staff, the EU has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on teaching aids, school trips and even cartoons.
According to Lee Rotherham, the author of a new book which examines the EU's spending on its image, such initiatives are an "outrageous and cynical attempt to brainwash the young". The Europa Diary, a gift from the EU to schoolchildren, is one example cited by Mr Rotherham in Hearts & Minds: the Tax-funded PR Campaign to Make us Love Brussels.
The diary has been sent to 1.2 million pupils in more than 9,000 schools across Europe. Its calendar includes pages that describe the European Parliament as "the people's voice" and claims that the EU has "improved the quality of people's everyday lives".
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