EUROPEAN COMMISSION: WALLSTROM CALLS FOR SHARED VALUES TO UNDERPIN NEW COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY.

In her speech, Mrs Wallstrom said that previous EU communications strategies had failed because they had not been based on a shared understanding of what communication should be. In addition, communicating on Europe had been a largely "Brussels" affair which had failed to properly involve national democratic institutions. Initiatives had been focused on supplying information the institutions wanted to disseminate rather aiming to meet citizens' requirements, she argued. Earlier communications efforts had failed to respond to the challenges of the changing media landscape and the emergence of the information society or to take account of the complexity and diversity of European public opinion, according to Mrs Wallstrom.

While the EU had developed as a political project, there was a lack of a "European public sphere" to allow citizens to make their voices heard in the process of developing Europe, she claimed. A project like the EU could only work if people "had a hand in writing the script" and citizens could agree with the project as a commonly-agreed venture, she told the seminar.

The Commission Vice-President said that the White Paper would call for communications to be made an EU policy in its own right and placed at the service of citizens. She singled out five priority areas on which the new strategy should focus:

- defining common principles;

- working in partnership;

- empowering citizens;

- working with media and new technologies; and

- understanding public opinion.

Defining common principles:

Mrs Wallstrom said that the White Paper would propose a European charter on information and communication, a voluntary framework within which the EU...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT