Press Team the latest

Together with Stacey we have been putting together a list of things which happened on the press side since June 1st. Most was "home-made", but with an obvious input from Catherine Ray. This is for you to know - as a part of internal communication in B4:

• Contribution to the EC press brief for the MFF announcement, EU added value justification particularly praised; a great example of all external relations Communication services working together well
• Lots of positive responses from the NGOs, as expected, but generally no harsh criticism of the EC development in the MFF so far
• Publication of a balanced article on Budget Support in the European Voice and the subsequent letter in defence of the EC's BS instrument by three leading NGOs including Oxfam. This is the fruit of the efforts by C.Ray, however based on the information provided by DEVCO
• Prepared a communication strategy for the DG for the development policy and budget support launch in October
• Produced materials to gain publicity around the Commission's children's drawing competition, which received significant media interest and is expected to result in a major article in the women's supplement of the weekend edition of Corriere della Sera, a major Italian daily
• Major effort in supporting C.Ray in successfully managing the crisis triggered by the alleged link between the EC money and a charity of a daughter of the Uzbek president Karimov
• Organising and financing a last-minute press trip to accompany A.Pieblags in Somaliland and Djibouti (super effort to get things done, working against normal procedures and deadlines), and producing press materials (four documents) for publication in Brussels and use during the visit
• Organised visit for winners of Young Reporters against Poverty competition to Tanzania. Worked with representations, SPP and webteam to publicise the visit. Visit was much praised, with the EU DEL going out of their way to make it a success (an example of good cooperation with a delegation)
• Produced all of the media materials for the Commissioner's visit to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan - including eight documents for the press, as well as LTT.
• Produced press materials for Commissioner's successful attendance at the GAVI conference, and suggested a list of journalists for the Commissioner to meet whilst there
• Supported Piebalg's visit to FAO conference in Rome and again produced a package of press materials
• Published press materials and 4 videos for College to College (C2C) meeting on JAES . President Barroso gave press speech largely based on our draft. Carried out tailored outreach (including webstreamed briefing/press conference) with press docs to all African DELs and relevant African journalists. Post event: publication of frontpage article in Commission en Directe. Secured presence on both DEVCO intranet and EuropeAid homepage.
• Proactively organised a media briefing for journalists with the Head of Delegation from the Cape Verde
• Produced an IP on EU-US dialogue for the Commissioner
• Coordinated and validated five IPs for the Neighbourhood Spokesperson team
• Coordinated over 13 responses to media queries for LTTs on the DG's work
• Prepared press materials to announce new funding for road infrastructure in Burundi
• Helped to coordinate press materials for a statement on CARICOM and two IPs on new funding for sugar disbursement and climate change programmes in the region
• Was chosen as one of five pilot DGs to start using a new style of IP - began to prepare roll-out within the DG. 
• Launch of Donor Atlas, coordination with web and intranet teams, drafting of Commissioner's foreword
• Assisted Catherine Ray in preparation and during 30 mins TV interview with RAI
• In the coming days: Draft press release on Annual Report, drafting of Commissioner's foreword for Annual Report

In total, produced and coordinated over 55 documents for the two spokespersons services.