Thanks for asking me to be a guest. I find the discussions here interesting and the project itself very worthwhile. Hopefully you do too! It’s the first time the Commission has supported this sort of a competition.
With just three weeks left until the European Parliament elections I am pleased to see that things are beginning to pick up around the EU. The media are finally getting around to covering the elections, interviewing candidates and analysing the key issues. I have done a lot of interviews and presentations, but I think now the public would be better off if media gave their precious airtime and column space to people who are actually running for election rather than someone from the Commission who is not. Hopefully the doomsday predictions of low turnout will be put to shame! .
A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a shout for Europe event at the Grand Place in Brussels. This was part of the MTV initiative Can you hear me Europe which aims to urge especially young Europeans to vote. Again, this is a first for the Commission and I’m curious to see how it will work out. This year, there are 36 million first-time-voters in Europe, and the only way to reach out to them is by adapting to the communication tools that they actually use, whether it’s MTV, blogs or Facebook rather than the Financial Times (though we might catch some of them there, too). An estimated 37 million people have seen the TV clips so far which I think represents good value for the relatively small amount of money invested in the project. I’m interested in what you bloggers think of it and also of the European Parliament TV ads which are now available on Youtube. My favourite clip currently however is this one made for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the iron curtain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X87zcC6bntY
It’s not directly related to the Parliament elections but actually it could be. I found it very moving.
Just a few days ago I participated in the first ever Citizens’ Summit in Europe. 150 people from all walks of life across the EU got together in Brussels to hand over to top policy-makers in Brussels their recommendations on how to tackle the economic and social challenges facing Europe. This was the culmination of an online consultation process involving some 250,000 and national consultations involving 1,600 people representing a cross section of the societies in all 27 Member States. There was a discussion with the leaders of the European political parties which I found interesting from several points of view. Not least the fact than many of the leaders slipped into election mode and were rapped on the knuckles by a citizen from Poland who reminded them that they were there to talk about the issues raised by citizens, not their respective party merits. That got a good round of applause in the room!
Anyway, I’ll keep this post short and let you react. Talk soon.
Margot
(13 votes, average: 4.15 out of 5)
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Dear Margot Wallström,
as you are a member of the PES (the European Socialists), don’t you think - in line with PES president Rasmussen - that nominating a candidate against Barroso would have been the best option to boost interest in these elections? Wouldn’t it be time to criticise PES leaders around the EU for failing in this regard?
Looking forward to your answer,
Julien
PS: Why has the last part of the last sentence in the first paragraph been deleted. It read “and if the feedback is good maybe we’ll do it more often” and was published in the first version of the post?
Hey - you mention the citizen’s summit. will something actually be done with these people’s suggestions? b’cause sometimes it seems that there are lots of good ideas there - grassroots’ ideas - but nobody REALLY listens
Hi Margot, and welcome to Th!nkaboutit!
As Commissioner you are responsible for “Institutional Relations and Communications Strategy” and yet the one criticism we always hear is that interest and participation in EU political institutions is low because the EU does not communicate well with its citizens.
Libertas, in particular, have claimed the EU is bureaucratic and undemocratic and want to cut €10 Billion from the EU budget - particularly the €2.4 they claim yo spend on Public Relations. See my interview with Raymond O’Malley, Libertas candidate in Ireland East here.
How do you respond to this criticism, and why do you think that despite the many inspiring achievements in Europe over the past 20 years - as shown in the Youtube clip - there is still so little interest in practicing the democracy our predecessors fought so long and hard for?
about the voting: i’ve seen the dutch tv ad and it doesn’t make such sense.. ideally people realise themselves that voting is important. if you want to change things or even have an opinion about something you should vote and not because a tv campaign says you should
Hi, Margot,
I did find the video moving. But it’s generated a comment-storm from viewers complaining that it doesn’t show the role of Polish Solidarity.
I have to say, the video is less than 3 minutes long - it’s not exactly a documentary. And it DOES mention the strikes in Poland in 1981.
This raises some interesting questions about the ‘democratic’ nature of the internet. It’s hard to tell, for example, if the comments are from one person/group spamming with multiple accounts, or if the video genuinely has touched a nerve.
Either way, critics of the EU are using the internet very effectively. The battle for young people’s support isn’t in the video itself - it’s in the comments section below.
“The media are finally getting around to covering the elections, interviewing candidates and analysing the key issues.”
You are right. However from my point of view there is still a big gap between the importance of these elections and the awareness among people.
For most of them European politics is still “far, far away in Brussels”. Unfortunately.
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I would just add something to the last comment and on the issue of communicating EU in general. On this portal we have already discussed the whole communication process of the EU and from my point of view: I think that disinterest of general public arises from different reasons (not efficient EU campaigning, orientation on rather national than EU matters, etc.). However, I just had a kind of coffee chat on this topic few hours ago with someone from EP office who told me that the journalists are now mostly interested about the topic of MEP salary in the future. At the same time, regardless the fact that there are millions of seminars for journalists in Brux, they are many times not able to cover policy issues. From my Slovenian angle I had to agree: we are listening already for approx. 4 months about Slo-Cro border issue and the new topic are MEP salaries. So, if we follow a bit the idea of social constructivism, then our national reality composed by media offers a very very poor news on the EU level…I’d like to hear your opinion about that…and I am intentionally a bit provocative because maybe some journalist can get involved into the discussion too
Dear Margot,
I believe that in order to reach out to the young voters in Europe, the EU has to inspire them, as Obama inspired the whole world during the US elections.
Maybe, with the Lisbon Treaty, if it comes into force, Europe will see an EU President with the necessary charisma, that would unite the nations of Europe and make them feel like a family.
The indifference of people as regards elections is general, it is not only a problem of the EU.
Actually, during this period, with the economic crisis, the umemployment, the swine flu, etc, voters SHOULD be interested. there are topics there that affect their daily lives. But they are NOT interested. They have not realized that the EP and the EU in general makes decisions which have to do with their lives.
Is this a problem of the media? I don’t think that media share the biggest part of the problem.
Citizens need to identify themselves with the EU and this has not happened yet.
That is why I believe that charisma is needed, in the face of an EU President, who will be communicative, and be able to unite the different nations of Europe.
Well fancy seeing you here Margot especially as there`s a slight bit of trouble posting on your blog yesterday. You did know that some EUrosceptics were here didn`t you ?
[...] Margot Wallström Guest blog post [...]
Dear Margot,
In your political discourse (sources: your blog, public speeches, even from the official communications policy documents http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/wallstrom/communicating/communicating_en.htm ) it is obvious that you and your colleagues consider the New Media as a key-factor in promoting European Integration. (I choose carefully the word “promoting” instead of the word “propagandising”, since I consider the latter as a misperception deliberately created by anti-Europeans.) It also obvious you are quite fond of Obama’s elections campaign (http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/wallstrom/its-time-for-change-in-europe-too)
1) Why do we need to copy Obama’s elections campaign (follow the links bellow to see what I mean)? Don’t you think we (as Europeans) need to “invent” or even “construct” a brand new genuine authentic European voice, instead of copying and pasting slavishly - blindly the American model (a model frequently disregarded by many European citizens)?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbHG1a8Pawc
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x96l3e_5-friends-4-europe_news#
2) About the emergence of internet as the most widely used communication tool.
Why not buy advertising time from Public broadcasting networks (ERT Greece, RAI Italy, BBC UK etc.) or from Commercial private channels since – according to Euro barometer - television is perceived as the preferred source for information, followed by daily newspapers, taking of course into consideration the rules regarding political advertising and broadcasting for elections which differ from state to state.
Who will buy the advertising time? Politicians / parties within member states. Why them? Because they are democratically elected. Why not the European Commission? The argument has always been that any “broadcasting / advertising” by the EP or Commission would be tantamount to political interference in the domestic affairs of a member state.
So, why this all of the sudden shift of interest to New Media? Who is so naïve as to believe that the New Media will be the panacea for the communications and therefore democratic deficit of EU?
Thank you for you time and keep up the good work (or at least the intentions are good!)
More about our project here: http://www.jmecelab.com
Ps: bonus track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrJERIw2M9Y
Agreeing with Joey Girokonto’s comment about the far, far away bureaucracy in Brussels that tends to form a Nanny EU intervening in my daily life without any chance to effectively protest against some of the dumber laws the EP creates. How could I mobilize half a million Austrians to protest in Brussels. The EP is the scapegoat for our regional politicians. Whenever there are unpopular new laws they say it was Brussels.
Second point: The big brother EU wants to monitor all my communication, passportless travel is at best a farce because it is not possible.
Third point: While the EU wants to look into our financial affairs because of terror financing and other BS I demand the same right to be able to monitor MEP’s and all other EU bureaucrats how they handle money.
The refusal to publicise their expenses is a slap into every democrats face, nothing else.
Fourth point: While we are being micromanaged and see a rapid growth of police forces in all EU nations with more and more checkpoints on the roads etc. (is this build-up of police because the EU senses the coming social unrest?)
Politicians were asleep at the wheel while banks gambled away our future. I have nowhere else seen such an incompetence in the EP level in this regard. Trichet never gets really questioned during his rare appearances in the EP. He speaks in front of a half empty parliament. Don’t you guys have any economic and financial education?
Fifth point: Why is OLAF still a marginal operation although fraud with EU subventions costs us more than €40 billion by now.
I stop it here, will post something on all these issues later.
Is blogging not about having a conversation? Why has there been no response to the many excellent points made above? If the EU thinks that blogging is just another one way street to propagandise the masses they are making a serious mistake. You have to engage with people and address their points - otherwise we are all wasting our time here.
Frank,
although you are non-smoker I virtually hug you for making a good point :))
Thanks Toni. How did you know I was a non-smoker?
It looks like we have been the victims of a PR stunt. There isn’t going to be any dialogue here.
From here in Ireland, that link is coming up as “this video is private” for me. Most things from the EU are.
Oh the irony!
Margot Wallström wrote:
“This year, there are 36 million first-time-voters in Europe, and the only way to reach out to them is by adapting to the communication tools that they actually use, whether it’s MTV, blogs or Facebook”
Good start, but what about the website that give serious insight regarding Society, Wikipedia? Even though over 60% of MEPs use it every week, the EU does not even seem to acknowledge that Wikipedia exists.
We have content about EU in all the official languages and more, time to start to cooperate closer with us?
Best regards, Ulf Larsen
Voluntary contributor, Wikipedia/Wikimedia
We still wait for a reply
Happy to see Mrs Wallstrom in here too…I will agree with some of the people who spoke before me. I always insisted that the net offers limited information to people. We need to also engage people who do not use it. the majority of people still use television as their main source of information, especially their national media channels, and especially people of some older age..we need to engage those people as well..they are citizents too. We need to hear more about EU ,from EU and the EP over there, or simply have a european channel to see what is being discussed and decided in the EuroParliament.
However, i would like to thank Mrs Wallstrom even for the chance of european citizents to speak about EU in the internet. we never had it before,so it is deffinately a progress.
Thank you.
Christos Mouzeviris.
First of all, thanks for the reactions to my previous post. And no, it wasn’t a PR stunt, I’ve just been run off my feet recently with my normal workload plus travelling and a fire forcing us to close our building for a week!
To come back to you on some of the points raised:
Frank - Thanks for the link to your interview with the Libertas candidate. He quotes from an Open Europe report that we spend 2.4 billion euro on PR and which is, frankly, complete nonsense. My department’s operational budget is roughly € 100 million per year (about 20 cents per person in the EU per year).
It is clear that Open Europe objects to the EU in general spending any money in areas such as education, culture, youth, citizenship, the environment and social protection.
Half of the figure (1.3 billion euro) relates to education and culture and includes, in most cases, the entire budget for the programmes, not just an information component. They include, just to pick some fairly random examples:
* Education projects and student exchanges such as lifelong learning, Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo etc – € 873 million ;
* the LIFE programme (financial instrument for the environment, 2007-2013) – € 248 million;
* EURES, the service which helps people to find jobs - € 20 million;
* support for the European audiovisual sector, including the MEDIA programme – € 93 million
* The operating costs of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture agency which manages town twinning and other activities - € 19.9 million;
* The Culture Programme - €44.6 million;
* The Youth in Action programme - €120 million;
* And one of my favourites: the administrative expenses for MEPs, including eurosceptic ones(!) – € 51.6 million
Why not include the entire EU budget?!
Toni - Fraud costs us 40 billion euro??!! Are you kidding? Where on Earth does this stuff come from? The auditors reports give the EU accounts a clean bill of health, the reason there are reservations is because of the stringent requirements and because the bulk of the money is spent in the Member States. Check out the EU Budget part of Terry Wynne’s website for a good, readable account of how things are. OLAF investigates internal matters by the way.
Stergios - Of course I realise that there are big differences between the political context and electoral processes in Europe and the US, and I am not arguing for us to copy what Obama did. But I do think that we have some lessons to learn from Obama and his revolutionary approach to communication with American citizens. I think we would go far in Europe if we adopted Obama’s use of new media, his clarity and simplicity and his way of engaging with the citizens. It is first and foremost European politicians who must learn the lessons rather than the EU Institutions.
Josef mentions the video we produced on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. I visited Poland shortly after the clip was launched, and it’s true it caused much controversy in the media. I think many people missed the point though – the clip was not a history lesson in 2 minutes, that is for documentary makers to do. Check out a new clip made by our office in Warsaw together with the Polish government and which will be on Eutube soon. This one focuses on Poland’s fight for democracy and the role it played to break down the divide between East and West. U2 gave permission to use New Year’s Day as the soundtrack. Listen to the lyrics - it fits perfectly with the images! And the girl, Marta, is not an actress, she celebrated her 20th birthday on 4 June 2009…
It’s election time! I’ve already voted by post.
Congrats on the quality of the blogging here and best wishes for the future.
Margot
Now that’s what I’m talking about!
Excellent stuff, Margot. When you comment back, the EU ceases to be a faceless institution in which everything only flows one way.
Many thanks Margot. I suppose we bloggers are used to near real time discussions and assume that someone who hasn’t responded in a week is no longer active!
Many thanks also for your clarification of the EU PR budget. When candidates make assertions like that it is often difficult to track down a source to confirm or refute the point being made.
You will note that Dick Roche, in my video interview with him was quite robust in his challenge to Libertas’ credibility on the issues of openness and transparency.
But much of the opposition to “EU waste and bureaucracy” has emotional roots and is due to mistrust and misunderstanding, and it is precisely this kind of mis-communication which can be quite effectively countered by blogs like this.
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