In Berlin, Prague and Milan, hundreds of young people have gathered under the direction of music station MTV to shout "Can you hear me Europe?" at the top of their lungs. Young people have a stubborn reputation as notorious non-voters in European elections. Can MTV itself succeed in getting the MTV generation to change their ways and cast their vote?

The initiative for MTV's 'Can You Hear Me Europe?' campaign comes from the European Commission. So too does the funding. Surprisingly, this is the first time that the Commission has focused so actively on the elections. Caution is advised, explains spokesman Joe Hennon.

"We don't want to be the grey, faceless bureaucrats who think we know best. So we don't tell people we would like them to do it this way or that way. What we do is we say we would like to achieve X or Y, and it's up to them to come up with ideas."

Channels of communication

The competition to win the assignment was open to all applicants. The fact that one of the candidates turned out to be Mostra - a partner of the mighty music station MTV - came as something of a relief, admits Hennon.

"Most young people don't read the broadsheets in their countries. Most of them listen to radio or watch television programmes, but not necessarily news programmes. When we were looking at our communication strategy, part of that is using the channels of communication that people use themselves in their daily lives. Music is certainly a language, it's a communication in itself. And MTV is in millions of households across the EU. So we thought this represented quite good value for money."

Medium and message

In June, over 30 million Europeans will be able to vote for the first time. Getting young people to exercise this right is always a tricky business. And even more so at the European elections, where the turnout tends to be low across the board. At the last European elections in 2004, people under the age of 24 were the main non-voters.

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