Wallström bij Comité van de Regio's: Europa moet vooruitkijken om impasse over grondwet te doorbreken (en)

COR/06/84

Brussels, 16 June 2006

Europe must stop looking back and start moving forward to overcome the `Constitutional blues',

Wallström tells CoR plenary assembly

Europe must look forward and stop wallowing in nostalgia if it wants to overcome its "Constitutional blues" and reach out to its citizens, European Commission Vice-President Margot WALLSTRÖM told members of the Committee of the Regions at their plenary session on 15 June.

The Commissioner addressed the assembly, meeting under the chairmanship of President Michel DELEBARRE, following the adoption of its opinion in response to the Commission's `Plan D' (Democracy, Dialogue and Debate) and White Paper on communication policy. The report, presented by Socialist (PES) group leader Mercedes BRESSO, calls for local and regional authorities to be given the resources to play a greater role in the development and implementation of communication strategy.

Mrs Wallström described the CoR's members as "decentralised communicators par excellence" and agreed with the report's suggestion that Plan D should also stand for Decentralisation. "We have to empower the citizens to make Europe their project and not a project of a remote elite Brussels crowd. We have to be present local and go local," she said.

One of the main themes of her address was the need for Europe to move forward. "There is too much nostalgia. People look back and talk about the leaders of yesterday's EU. I pay tribute to them. But in today's EU, with a different reality, we cannot look back for solutions."

Although Brussels was still suffering a bout of the "Constitutional blues", it would only win back the trust of citizens by delivering results and by becoming more open and democratic.

The Commissioner's message was warmly received. Mrs Bresso, President of the Italian region of Piedmont, echoed the view that Europe should not keep harking back to its past. "We need leaders of the future ... with clear, straight-forward plans," she said.

Mrs Bresso also emphasised the need to safeguard and modernise the European social model so that it enables citizens to take up the opportunities that the EU offers as a global economic player. Europe must do more to facilitate the mobility of people, she added.

Isidoro GOTTARDO, leader of the European People's Party (EPP) group and Italy's Friuli-Venezia Giulia region councillor, stressed the importance of policy content, saying: "Dialogue with the local level is important but we have to decide what it is we want to communicate." He also highlighted the EPP's plans to host a summer university for local media - "a very good initiative" according to the Commissioner.

Speaking for the Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), José Maria MUÑOA GANUZA, external affairs representative of the President of the Basque Region, said: "We are in a crisis and we all have to help each other out of that crisis. But it is difficult to put a message across when the Member States are not pulling their weight."

Joan ASHTON, member of Boston Council in the UK and the Union for Europe of the Nations - European Alliance (UEN-EA) group, argued that a "permanent dialogue with all citizens is the only way forward ... and we must take note of that debate."

During a plenary discussion preceding Mrs Wallström's speech, several members referred to practical difficulties in communicating about Europe.

Pauliina HAIJANEN (EPP/FI), municipal councillor and member of the board of South West Finland, questioned whether local and regional authorities had sufficient resources and skills to explain the EU. "The professionals at local and regional level don't know the substance particularly well; those who have the substance don't have the ability to put it over," she lamented.

Michael SCHNEIDER (EPP/DE), State Secretary for Saxony-Anhalt, suggested that extra investment in Commission communication had resulted in cutbacks in the budget for his region's annual European Week. "Communication cannot be more effective than at the local level," he said. Edwin POOTS (non-aligned), member of Lisburn City Council, Northern Ireland, described Plan D as "a misnomer". "The democracy that took place in France and the Netherlands has been dismissed," he jibed.

For Geert JANSEN (EPP/NL), Queen's Commissioner for the Province of Overijssel, the EU had first to "demonstrate that decisions in Brussels and Strasbourg are necessary and desirable" before communicating about them. A more upbeat message was sounded by Josef MARTINZ (EPP/AT), member for the province of Klagenfurt. "EU supporters should not be underestimated. We should not allow their expectations to go unfulfilled," he declared.

Structured dialogue

Following the plenary, President Delebarre and Commissioner Wallström took part in a `structured dialogue' on communication issues with representatives of European and national associations of local and regional authorities.

CoR member Christophe ROUILLON (PES), Vice-President of the Association of French Mayors and Mayor of Coulaines, spoke for many when he stressed that the EU should comply more with the principle of "think European and act locally".

"The public and their local representatives are more than just consumers of information; they want to be involved in European decision-making at the earliest stage possible," he said, noting that the Eurobarometer of 15 March 2006 had found that 57% of those polled believed that local government representatives could be reliable and special channels for informing them about European issues.

Media forum

In parallel to the plenary, the CoR and Commission's communication directorate general (DG COMM) hosted a two-day practical forum for directors of communication and editors of local and regional authority titles, focused on how Europe can better serve the needs of media in its regions and cities.

Addressing the opening workshop, CoR President Delebarre underlined that presentation skills are no substitute for strong European policies and that the EU institutions have much to gain from coordinating more closely with the local level. "The Commission is not always right. Regional and local representatives are not always right either. But if we decide how to present policies together, we can put across a credible message," he said. "It's not just necessary to reformulate the presentation of Europe, but also the design of its policies. It's essential that European policy is good," he commented.

M. Delebarre, Mayor and MP for the French city of Dunkerque, disagreed with the notion that EU is too complex to communicate. "Some people see the citizens as not up to the level of understanding. If that is the approach, it is totally wrong"

Claus SORENSEN, director general of DG COMM, said the EU needed courageous politicians, prepared to run the risk of presenting a vision of where Europe should be in 2050. "It's not about blah blah, it's about the future of this continent," he added.

Keith ELLIOTT, a UK national newspaper journalist and chairman of PMA, Europe's largest media skills training company, said EU needed to cater more for "the online reading era" and a "generation of skippers" which typically spends seconds rather than minutes scanning the web for information.

In his blunt assessment, EU press releases were "nowhere near good enough".

Mrs Wallström's spokesman, Mikolaj DOWGIELEWICZ, moderated a second workshop on 15 July for journalists from local and regional authority publications.

For more information, please contact:

Dennis ABBOTT

Tel. +32 (0)2 282 20 99

Email: dennis.abbott@cor.europa.eu

Estelle POIDEVIN

Tel. +32 (0)2 282 22 70

Email: estelle.poidevin@cor.europa.eu

Martin MALLON

Tel. +32 (0)2 282 20 33

Email: martin.mallon@cor.europa.eu