FACTS methodology: A dialogue designed to understand citizens

Scrolling through social media posts under the hashtag #EU, one finds a range of results: official information on the European Commission’s latest proposal, quotes from European law experts interviewed on the rule of law crisis, as well as tweets harshly criticising the European response to crises, directly followed by a post blatantly spreading disinformation about the European Union. This happens every day. On different communication media. In different languages.In this perpetual flow of information, we may wonder what actually sticks in citizens’ minds, how they think of Europe, and where they assume the EU should be more active. With the aim of discovering this, the FACTS project’s methodology was designed to capture the characteristics, expectations and attributes citizens associate with the European Union.