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28th Mar 2024

New EU treaty to be communications 'prority' for Brussels

  • Some member states fear Brussels will spread "propaganda" (Photo: CE)

The European Commission is planning on making the promotion of a new treaty one of its main tasks in the coming months, after the previous more grandly name EU constitution was rejected in two founding member states.

EU communications commissioner Margot Wallstrom on Tuesday (10 July) said she wants to discuss the final treaty with citizens.

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Communicating will be "one of the main political priorities", said the commissioner who is planning on highlighting the fight against climate change and energy solidarity as reasons why citizens should like the new document.

The new treaty – essentially a repackaging of most of the draft EU constitution – is set to be finalised by the end of the year with one year for ratification, and is to come into force by mid 2009.

"We need them on board, we cannot do without them in 2007. [This year] is not enough to have a project for the political elite, citizens have to be there," she told EUobserver.

Skewed message

Ms Wallstrom, the first ever commissioner responsible for communications, has been struggling to make her mark through a combination of a lack of resources and a skewed message on how much to involve the citizens.

While there were several Brussels-initiated citizen discussions on the EU after the constitution was rejected by France and the Netherlands, the first half of this year saw highly secretive government discussions on the new treaty.

Member states also made it clear they were going to do everything possible to secure a new look treaty document that did not have to be put to a referendum again – with both France and the Netherlands keen to avoid the unpredictable ratification path.

In addition, the new treaty reprises most of the constitution - 90 percent in the words of the Irish leader Bertie Ahern - leaving the EU open to the charge that it ignored the results of the referendums.

For her part, the commissioner is planning on publishing a paper at the beginning of autumn on how to "structure debate" with citizens.

Communicating

But there are already problems with the approach. She admits that it is not clear whether there is actually a "legal basis" for taking communication in the direction that she would like – such as "communicating priorities" and making sure Brussels puts its own stamp on the message it wants to promote, something she calls "political ownership" of the issues.

While MEPs are generally supportive of the idea, member states are reluctant to let the commission go down this path believing communication is more of a national domain and concerned that Brussels will spread "propaganda."

According to officials, there is already a major discussion in the commission about whether an entirely new legal platform should be created for communications.

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