Toespraak Eurocommissaris Wallström over online communiceren met Europese burgers (en)

Vice-President of the European Commission

Europe online: new media for a new age

Seminar on Online and Multimedia Communication

Madrid, 2nd December 2008

Hello everyone, and welcome to this seminar.

The subject we're here to discuss is a very interesting and important one: how better to reach out to European citizens online and using multimedia platforms.

If anyone here has any doubts about the importance of online communication, let me remind you of what happened last month in the United States. Barak Obama's election victory was won not just at political rallies or on television – though they helped. It was won primarily on the internet.

Roosevelt was famous for using radio and Kennedy for his use of television. Obama on the other hand used the internet as the central platform of his campaign. He harnessed the power of the web to mobilise literally millions of supporters and activists. These people were able to receive unfiltered messages directly from him and his staff and to distribute them further using mobile phones, social networking sites, blogs and sites such as YouTube. They were also able to download information and material in order to carry out 'old-fashioned' activities such as knocking on doors, making phone calls and organising small events at local level.

Here in Europe, use of the internet is not yet so refined. However, in referenda on the Constitutional Treaty in France and The Netherlands, and more recently on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland, I believe the political establishment ignored the growing significance of the internet. The No campaigns in all three countries were successful in mobilising opinion on the web and creating a groundswell which I think went largely unnoticed because the focus of the establishment was still on traditional media.

EU leaders and institutions need to learn from these examples. We need to use those same online tools to get our message across – to ensure a fair and balanced debate.

The Commission is making its own efforts to be more present on the web. We launched our own channel on YouTube a year ago which has now received over 11 million video views.

We also launched a 23 language discussion forum in February this year on which there are now over 100.000 comments. I might add that this has been quite popular in Spain and that Spanish and Catalan are among the top 5 most used languages.

We are modernising our own websites – which incidentally receive half a million hits every day – to make them more interesting, informative and interactive.

But communicating online is not just about having a nice website. EU policy-makers also need to present their ideas and their arguments elsewhere on the internet – on popular blogs and debate sites. In the columns of online newspapers and on video sharing sites. In particular, European political parties and foundations need to learn the lessons from the USA and realise that the internet is becoming the centre of any communication strategy and not just a peripheral part.

One of the criticisms often made against the EU is that it's not democratic enough. People's voices can't be heard – or, if they are heard, they are not heeded. Politicians need to listen to the people, and address their concerns through real dialogue.

You know something? I agree. The EU should indeed give citizens a greater say in its decision-making and policy-making.

I want the citizens of Europe to be not just "on board" but very much in the driving seat, setting Europe's agenda for the 21st century. That's why I want to see much better communication in Europe – not only between the people and the policy-makers but also among the people themselves.

We need a continent-wide conversation among people from all walks of life and all of our 27 countries. A conversation about the kind of EU they want: what they expect of it; what issues they want it to tackle; what kind of action they want EU leaders to take.

The internet offers the ideal forum for that conversation. It's become, in effect, the world's "market square" where everyone can meet to discuss the issues of the day. It is the "speaker's corner" where anyone can post arguments, or satirical sketches, and influence the political process.

European politicians and EU institutions therefore need to be in the market square, joining in the conversation, listening to the speakers, responding to their arguments.

Blogs are an obvious place to do so. I was the first European Commissioner to start a blog, a couple of years ago. I wanted to put a face on what is often seen as a faceless bureaucracy, and to give people the opportunity to communicate with me directly and publicly.

I write every week on current affairs and topics of personal interest. I have written more than 200 posts so far, attracting three and a half million page views and more than 15 000 comments.

Initially, the blog was targeted by a relatively small group of pretty hostile commentators – mostly "Euro-sceptics" opposed to the European Union in any shape or form – and some of their postings were very aggressive, even abusive.

At first I was shocked: but apparently this kind of language is a well-known feature of blogs. John Suler, the psychologist, puts it down to a loss of inhibitions in online conversation.

The participants are unseen and often anonymous, and the exchange of views does not take place in "real time".

Blogging is not a face-to-face conversation in the "real world", so – unfortunately – people behave as if the normal rules of civilised discourse do not apply.

Anyway, after a few months the comments on my blog became less vitriolic and a number of Euro-sceptics actually praised me for at least having the courage to allow people to criticize the European Union openly, on an official EU platform.

In fact I welcome constructive criticism, and I don't believe in censorship. Frank debate is the lifeblood of democracy and the internet is the ideal forum for that debate.

Today's seminar is a great opportunity to consider how we can use that forum and stimulate that debate. I hope you will think especially carefully about how we can use the internet to raise public awareness of next year's European Parliament elections.

We need to stimulate people's interest in the Parliament, in the role it plays and in the issues on which it will be legislating over the next few years. If we can do so, we will see a higher turnout in the 2009 elections – and the EU will have become that much more democratic.

So I wish you a very fruitful seminar – and, when you get home, plenty of action online!

Thank you.