The initiative was founded by the three students Hans-Christoph Schlüter, Benedikt Erasmus Kau and Mirko Moser-Abt. All three shared a concern about the rise of euroscepticism and right-wing-populism. The outcome of the Brexit referendum was the trigger for them to become active. They decided to publish pictures with simple pro-European messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Communication Style
WhyEurope has adopted a communication style they refer to as “Positive Populism”. The founders describe the approach as simple, emotional and personal. They refrain from including difficult, political or legal terms in their slogans and make their messages as catchy and short as possible. Furthermore, WhyEurope aims to trigger positive emotions by connecting political issues to every-day topics such as love or happiness. The initiative aims at pointing out the concrete advantages complex benefits of European integration have in people's daily lives. The founders have repeatedly stated that Positive Populism is to be seen as a simple and emotional communication style, but sustains a foundation of hard facts and evidence. In contrary to actual ‘negative’ populists, they want to provide factual evidence and explanations for their claims. WhyEurope considers Positive Populism an approach to oppose current populist and extremist movements. According to them, the technical communication of the European Union might have contributed to the lack of support those institutions have received during the past years. Adopting a more appealing communication approach might help the Union to regain confidence.
Independence
Since their foundation, WhyEurope has always emphasized their character as a non-partisan and independent initiative. Despite being in contact with actors of the European Union, they have repeatedly stated their distance to the EU institutions. They refuse to accept any financial support in any form from the European Union and other political institutions or actors.
Relationship to other initiatives
WhyEurope has had a number of cooperations with other pro-European initiatives. Since beginning of 2016, Benedikt Kau and Hans-Christoph Schlüter were in contact with :de:Daniel Röder|Daniel Röder and Sabine Röder when they launched the demonstrations under the name Pulse of Europe. Pulse of Europe adopted the campaign and the slogan of the campaign “Blijf bij ons” focusing on the :de:Parlamentswahl in den Niederlanden 2017|Dutch General elections. Together, the initiatives mobilized ten thousands of people joining pro-European demonstrations. Further cooperations included projects with the Young European Federalists and Laute Europäer.
Reception
On 31 January, Marine Le Pen filed a parliamentary request in the European Parliament asking about the funding of WhyEurope through the European Commission. Commissioner Günther Oettinger, then responsible person for the EU budget, replied that the Commission has not funded WhyEurope in any way and the name were not found within the central accounting system. November 2017, WhyEurope has been awarded European Public Communication Award by the European Committee Of The Regions. The prize was received during the EuroPCom in the hemicycle of the European Parliament. In May 2018, WhyEurope has been awarded the :de:Arno-Esch-Preis|Arno-Esch-Preis by the Association of Liberal Academics in Germany.
