SPEECH/07/25
Margot Wallström
Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Institutional relations and Communication strategy From the blame game to day-to-day partnership: European Commission, the German Presidency and the Member States discuss the key principles of EU communication policy
Stakeholders' conference on the White Paper in Berlin Berlin, 18 January 2007
Thank you, Mr Wilhelm, for your warm welcome to Berlin. And I also want to thank the German Government for the strong support they are giving to this conference.
Germany is taking over the rotating presidency of the EU at a very crucial moment. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. It's a time for celebrating everything that we have achieved – "Together since 1957", to quote the logo we have chosen for Europe’s anniversary.
But it is also a time for facing the future - together.
Today's world presents Europe with enormous challenges and opportunities – from globalization to climate change, from security of energy supplies to security in the face of terrorism and international crime, from economic growth and competitiveness to fighting poverty and social injustice inside and outside our continent.
No country can hope to meet these challenges alone. We have to tackle them together – taking effective joint action.
We therefore need a European decision-making system that is effective, simple and transparent.
That is, of course, why we need a new and improved EU Treaty – and I am glad the German presidency intends to move swiftly ahead towards this goal, taking Europe out of the constitutional stalemate.
But the French and Dutch "no" votes in 2005 reminded us very forcefully that the European integration project cannot go ahead without wide public support.
It must be a project which the citizens of Europe understand and in which they are actively involved. The people need to take ownership of the project and set the agenda.
This can only come about if there is real communication between the people and the policy-makers – and between the people of the 27 EU countries.
Today Europe is not given a fair place in the public debate. In the blame-game, Europe is often voiceless in front of attacks that originate from short-term political considerations or misinformation.
The possibility to express the "common European interest" remains very limited. And this is a problem for pluralism and for democracy, and of course, for our common future.
Just a year ago, the European Commission published a White Paper setting out our vision for a new communication policy.
In the five chapters of our White Paper we called for action in five key areas:
1. Defining common principles
2. Empowering citizens
3. Working with the media and new technologies
4. Understanding European public opinion
5. Doing the job together.
We launched an on-line consultation on the White Paper. This was our first ever public consultation on communication policy, and it illustrates our new approach – listening to public opinion.
Between February and September last year we received around 600 responses. This is a good result by Commission standards.
We have followed this with a series of stakeholder conferences – aimed at bringing the key players together for a lively debate on the issues facing us.
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This conference in Berlin is the last of the series and certainly one of the most important, not least because it covers two vital chapters of the White Paper: the first one, on Defining common principles, and the last one on Doing the job together.
Our discussion will take place in four parallel workshops focused on four topics:
How to create synergies between the communication objectives and agendas of the EU institutions and of the member states; How to set up partnerships between the EU and national authorities; How best to "go local"; How to establish the common principles underlying our common policy.
Let me say a few words about what I think we need to focus on in each of these workshops.
First, priorities and synergies
If we accept that communicating Europe is a joint responsibility, we must find the way to coordinate our communication work and avoid dissipating our energies or duplicating each other's efforts.
Can we, perhaps, compare national communication priorities with the EU institutions' priorities and draw up a short-list of topics on which we can focus our joint efforts? Can we, perhaps, agree a timetable for action on these topics?
It would be very important, from the “public sphere” perspective, that issues of common interest – for example energy security, climate change, social Europe – are discussed more or less at the same time, by people across the European Union, and possibly within a common framework of values.
Moreover, in this joint effort, there is a lot that we could learn from each-other, many good practices that could be exchanged, valuable expertise and know-how to be shared.
But this requires a lot of co-ordination and co-operation. Are we equipped for it?
Over time, several initiatives have been undertaken to make this co-operation possible, at least on a voluntary basis. The Club de Venice has already celebrated its 20th anniversary. For several years now we have had the Inter-institutional group on Information (IGI). We also have the Council Working Group on Information and informal gatherings of ministers have become more frequent in recent years. But what about delivery? Is all this enough to make a real change in communicating Europe? And how do we measure success?
And what about other existing structures and tools, like our offices in Member states, the Europe Direct networks or the Prince programme. What should be improved, or changed .... or scrapped? Please let’s discuss frankly and openly.
I believe we all agree that the situation as it is today is far from satisfactory and I could spend quite some time on our "cahier de doléances": lack of political responsibility, ad hoc character of our initiatives, no long-term planning, very limited budgetary resources, and so forth. I believe that all these problems derive from an old fashioned way to look at communication: as an accessory tool rather than as a policy in its own right, at the service of citizens and democracy.
But how do we get there? I would like to hear about solutions, rather than problems, because I don't think there is disagreement on the diagnosis....
Second, partnerships
The second workshop will be focusing on partnership arrangements, on how to make them work.
Some forms of communication partnership already exist. There are partnerships between civil society and the EU institutions. For example, the Commission is currently giving financial support to six civil society organisations to promote Europe-wide citizens' debates on the future of the EU.
Could we envisage similar partnerships on a wider scale? And what about co-operation between government departments and NGOs?
We have also started two kinds of partnership between the EU institutions and the member states.
The first is the so-called strategic partnership – under which the national government, the Commission and the European Parliament agree on a joint communication plan. Some of the measures are financed by the Commission, others by the national authorities.
The second is the so-called management partnership. Here, the parties also agree on a communication plan, broken down into separate operations – each involving a set of concrete measures. These measures are then implemented on the basis of invitations to tender issued by the government of the member state concerned.
One such partnership – between the EU institutions and Germany – is already up and running. Similar partnerships with other member states are currently being negotiated or have been requested, and will be coming into operation over the next two or three years. This is encouraging.
But is it enough? The resources available for these partnerships are very small compared to the scale of the task before us. We need to discuss what else can be done.
Third, going local
European communication policy must go local in order to genuinely meet the diverse needs of European citizens in different countries and regions.
It is not up to Brussels to say how this can be organised. The answer is likely to vary from country to country. Some Member States are organized along federal lines, some are divided into autonomous communities, others have a more centralized administrative structure. Each country must therefore find its own way of ensuring that European issues are debated within the local and regional context.
It goes without saying that local and regional authorities and civil society organisations will play the major role, working with the local and regional media and with the Commission and European Parliament offices in each country.
But, also here, there is large scope for joint actions, exchange of best practices and mutual learning.
The Scottish initiative – which we shall be hearing about in the third workshop – is a good example of best practice that other countries and regions could consider following.
All Italian regions have recently signed a common declaration in which they commit to a set of principles and practices to communicate Europe. It is a very recent initiative, and it is too early to say how it will work in practice. But it is indicative of the increasing willingness of the local level to play an active role in setting the European agenda.
The local debates need to be channelled back to Brussels, and I believe the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions have an important part to play here.
Finally, establishing common principles
The fourth workshop deals with defining common principles, an issue that is the subject matter of the first chapter of the White Paper:.
This is an issue of fundamental importance.
Public communication is one of the most difficult and sensitive issues in contemporary democracies. There is a high political and ethical dimension to it, and this must be fully acknowledged.
If we have to work together, if we have to take joint ownership of communicating Europe, then we need to define the common values and principles that will guide our activities.
And the starting point to define these common principles can only be the citizens and their democratic rights.
The right to full and fair information about decisions that affect their lives, wherever they are taken; The right to hear and compare different opinions and points of views; The right to debate issues of common interest; The right to express their views and to be heard.
How to enhance these rights also at European level? This is what we had in mind when we proposed a European charter on information and communication, and listed some of its fundamental principles: inclusiveness, diversity, participation.
We always saw it as a tool for citizens, something that would give citizens a stronger voice in front of the institutions, both in Brussels and in Member States. Something that would therefore create commitment and induce institutions and policy makers to engage in communication – real two-way communication – with citizens.
During one year of consultations and lively discussions around the White Paper, we have heard several opinions and ideas on how to move forward on the issue of common principles. The idea of the charter has received mixed reactions. Some have found the proposal too prescriptive; others have found it too weak. Other options have also been put forward, which I am sure will be echoed in this conference.
But we have gradually seen a consensus emerging on the need for those principles to be clearly spelled out as a necessary step for our "working together".
Art. 47 of the Constitutional Treaty introduces the principle of participatory democracy. But participation in public life crucially depends on the fulfilment of the civic rights I have just mentioned.
Therefore, ideally, a reference to these rights should be ensured in the Treaty of the European Union. ,
I am saying ideally because I don't know whether current and future work on the constitutional settlement will give us a chance to progress in this direction..
There may be a window of opportunity at this precise point in time. And I believe that such a move would send a clear signal that we have learned the tough lessons of the ratification process. It would show that we are serious when we talk about connecting Europe to its citizens.
As part of the effort to overcome the Constitutional stalemate, the German Presidency is now working on the preparation of the Berlin declaration, that will be on the table of our Heads of state and government at the European Council in March. I am firmly convinced that the commitment to real two-way communication with citizens should be one of the key elements of the solemn declaration. I am glad to add that this was one of the points that President Barroso made yesterday in his intervention at the European Parliament.
I leave this thought to your further reflections. Of course, there may be other ways to achieve our objectives and to move forward our communication agenda, and we should continue to explore them with an open mind and a good degree of pragmatism.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
I am looking forward to hearing your views on all these key issues. Let us have a frank and lively debate leading – if at all possible – to firm conclusions.
Those conclusions will feed into the Commission's final report on the White Paper – to be published in the spring. On the basis of this final report the Commission will propose concrete plans for action to be taken not just by the Commission but by all the partners.
Together we must deliver a European communication policy that serves European citizens and European democracy. Let us use this conference to move towards an agreement on how to do that in practice.
Thank you for listening. I wish you a very stimulating and fruitful discussion.
