The Silence of the EU and our Media about Eurabia: EU´s cowardly dictatorship began when the truth was silenced

Margot Wallström
Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Institutional relations and communication strategy
Communicating Europe in partnership
ECAS conference "Is the EU really listening to citizens?"
Brussels, 3 October 2007

Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Institutional relations and communication strategy

Communicating Europe in partnership

ECAS conference "Is the EU really listening to citizens?"
Brussels, 3 October 2007

When I started this job, I realised pretty quickly that the Commission's hearing needed to be improved. I find it almost funny when people accuse us of making EU propaganda, because the real work I have been involved in is trying to put "ears on the Commission", trying to transform our communication work into a tool for democracy.

As some of you may know, one of the tools we use is a Europe direct call service, which receives on average 10,000 requests for information on the EU every month. Of course the questions are very varied, but there is a common theme: people want to know about how EU decisions affect them, whether it's on the taxes they pay on cars imported from other European Member States, whether they will benefit from reductions in roaming charges, or whether the rights in the Charter will apply to them.

What clearly emerges from looking at these, together with our Eurobarometer polling results, is a citizen's agenda for the EU. They know what they want from the EU, and they are at times frustrated that we don't deliver it. This Commission started out being viewed as having only a Business agenda. But I think it is a sign that we have learnt how to listen better over the last two and a half years that my colleagues all now recognise the need to respond to this Citizens' Agenda that I referred to.
This morning the Commission adopted my proposal entitled "Communicating Europe in partnership".

First, the emphasis of our new paper is on partnership. Partnership primarily between the European institutions and the member states, but also with civil society. For too long we have blamed one another for the EU's communication failures. It's time to work together on a shared agenda based on agreed priorities.

Second, the purpose of the whole exercise is to empower citizens. To give people better access to information and better forums for debate. Clearly, there is a major role here for civil society organisations.

Third, it consolidates the approach we have adopted over the last two years. It does not try to re-invent the wheel. It does not announce yet another new approach to communication.

As you well know, national governments like to claim credit for EU decisions that prove popular and to blame 'Brussels' for the unpopular ones. All too often they fail to explain to their citizens why and how these decisions were taken. The result is that too many people are ill-informed about European issues and many have a negative image of the EU. That can lead to big political problems.

Take the example of EU enlargement in 2004. It was important to explain to European citizens why the EU was expanding, what the benefits would be and how the difficulties would be tackled. But whose job was it to do the explaining?

The Commission had far too small a budget to do the job on its own. The member states had much larger resources but didn't do enough. So what happened? Fear of the Polish plumber and the future prospect of Turkish accession motivated many French people to vote "No" to the EU Constitution in 2005.

The solution, as the Commission sees it, is for the EU institutions and the member states to share the responsibility for communicating Europe, making the best use of their collective resources. We saw this working well in 2001 when preparing for the introduction of euro cash. The member states realized how essential it was to inform everyone properly. They invested massive resources in the campaign. As a result, on 1 January 2002, everything went smoothly.

Cooperation and coherent communication is the way forward. Moreover, we need an agreed framework within which to cooperate. What we are proposing in our new paper is an inter-institutional agreement.

Under this agreement, much of the communication work done by the Commission,
Council and Parliament would be

The Commission also proposes to establish "management partnerships" with individual member states. To put it simply, this means that individual governments – if they so wish - will implement specific communication plans that have been agreed with the Commission and are financed by the Commission. The action taken under these plans should be as decentralized as possible – with the emphasis on "going local". And it should not be designed to "sell" policies or to persuade people to love the government or the EU: it should be action to create dialogue and debate.

We must create user-friendly forums for that debate. Forums that are easily accessible to the citizen. That’s why the Commission and Parliament are developing a network of meeting places where people can get information, see exhibitions and films, take part in discussions, attend concerts, lectures and seminars. These so-called European Public Spaces will be located in the premises where the two institutions have their offices in the member states.

But let me stress that this is not an institution-centred exercise: it is citizen-centred. That is the second and perhaps most important point I want to make today.

Our purpose is not to glorify the European institutions. We want to inform people because information is power. Informed debate and dialogue enable people to understand policy options. Understanding enables people to vote meaningfully. Democracy comes alive!

Clearly, civil society can do a lot to make this happen. NGOs are already well placed to organize polls, launch petitions and enable citizens to make their voices heard. Some NGOs have already created excellent trans-national forums for debate on the web. We would like to see more of those.

In fact, we would like to help civil society develop a whole network of websites which promote contact between European citizens. The Commission will support websites that focus on European affairs and that stimulate debate on EU policy issues. We will help civil society in other ways too. We intend to give NGOs better, and more equal access to Commission departments, and we will ensure that in each department there will be a civil society contact person.

Those NGOs who responded to our White Paper were very keen to be involved in shaping European policy. They are invited to join us in a major effort to communicate Europe in partnership.

My third point is that in this paper we are consolidating our approach. In the last two years the Commission has made a break with the past in how it thinks about communication. Now it's time to hardwire this new concept into the normal practices and methods we use.

It's time to apply the lessons we have learnt from Plan D, from our 2005 Action Plan

and from our extensive consultation exercise on last year's White Paper. We have seen how useful it is to focus on a limited number of priority topics. This year, energy and climate change are a top priority. Next year we shall spotlight the institutional settlement achieved by the Reform Treaty. For each priority topic, a communication plan is drawn up by a project team made up of staff from DG COMM and from the DG responsible for the specific policy in question.

This makes for better coordination and more effective communication – as we saw in our recent campaign to inform people about mobile phone roaming charges.

We will continue training our staff in public communication techniques, and a competition will be held next February to recruit communication professionals. We will continue to "go local" via our Representation offices in the Member States. Thanks to extra staff, they are now able to listen more closely to public opinion and work more effectively with civil society.

We will also continue to encourage a public debate on the future of the European Union. We will have a new Treaty some time in 2009. The citizens of Europe need to know how it will affect them. And EU leaders need to know what the citizens of Europe think – not just about the Treaty and the institutional changes it brings but also about the wider questions.

What should be the overall aims of the European Union?
What should its priority objectives be in the years ahead?

What policies do we need – on energy, on the environment, on agriculture, on trade, on social issues, on EU enlargement – to enable us to achieve those objectives? Thousands of people have discussed these topics on our "Debate Europe" website which has had 1.3 million hits since it was created in March 2006, as part of Plan D. Thousands of people from all walks of life have also taken part in face-to-face trans-national debates under Plan D, and the first results are in.

In December the Commission will hold a conference to draw final conclusions from these debates, and we shall send these conclusions to the European Council. Then we will consider what type of exercise should follow on from Plan D next year.

Also in December we shall publish a new strategy for our internet work. This will include action to improve our Europa web portal, presenting the contents in a more accessible and user-friendly way. We shall make it easier to navigate and more interactive, with blogs, podcasting and e-polling. At the same time we are working to set up networks of internet discussion forums, backed up by meetings across the EU and in the European Parliament. The purpose of these “Pilot Information Networks” is to improve communication between European and national politicians, and other opinion formers.

As well as a new internet strategy we are planning a new audiovisual strategy, to be published early next year. We will encourage TV and radio broadcasters in Europe to form networks, and we intend to offer such networks multi-annual contracts for producing and broadcasting EU affairs programmes.
Content will be decided by the broadcasters. They will be guaranteed complete editorial freedom. Let me also point out that our new audiovisual strategy is the direct result of last year's consultation on the White Paper.

Broadcasters clearly want the Commission to help them provide informative, educational and entertaining programmes about European affairs as part of their public service mission. In all these ways the Commission wants to encourage an informed public debate about the European Union and to engage in real dialogue with European citizens.

Will the Commission take note of the views citizens express? YES! We expect to hear a wide variety of views and a great deal of sharp controversy. Controversy is good for democracy and I welcome it.

Will the debates have any impact on EU politics? Yes – by helping people form their own political views. This is especially important in the run-up to the June 2009 European elections.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Our new paper sets out to consolidate our new approach to communication.

The key concept is partnership. Partnership primarily between the European institutions and the member states. But with plenty of scope for involving civil society.

It should mean the start of the "win-win" work of coherent communication.

Through informed dialogue and debate. For the sake of a more democratic Europe.