Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-14-Speech-5-044"
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"en.20000414.3.5-044"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Commissioner Reding for her response to Mr Andreasen. We have a very committed commissioner in Commissioner Reding. She has a really tough task on her hands but I am sure that she will get the full support that she recognises that she needs from the European Parliament.
With the plethora of new TV channels, with digital TV, have we got anywhere with a Parliamentary TV channel? I can watch the US Senate on television gavel-to-gavel. But not the European Parliament. We must emphasise the good-news stories of when we help the citizen. We have a Committee on Petitions that addresses a thousand petitions a year. When did the information departments of the Commission or Parliament last attend a meeting of that committee? When did they past publish any of the good news that comes from that committee?
Finally, I have to address the problem of Parliament in Strasbourg. I am not anti-Strasbourg. I am certainly not anti-France. I understand that Strasbourg was the symbol of peace and unity of our continent, but that was a symbol of the 20th century. In the 21st century, I am afraid it is a symbol of waste and inefficiency. I ask Parliament, Commission and the Council of Ministers to address that problem.
I find myself totally supportive of this motion in addressing the information deficit of the EU. The information deficit is actually more serious than the democratic deficit that we often talk about. In a sense, the information deficit and the democratic deficit are part of the same problem.
In the recent past, we have had the Oostlander report in 1993 and the famous Pex report in 1998. They have analysed the problem, suggested improvements, but sadly little has been achieved. I wish Commissioner Reding well in getting on with this problem.
This week I had a visitors' group from the Winchester Probus Club, mainly retired people and, in general terms, well informed about world affairs. However, you could write what they knew about the aims of the EU on the back of a one euro note. Before anyone tells me that euro notes do not exist, it would not make any difference: they could not write anything.
When I speak to British groups, I often start with the question: do you want to be in the European Union? The immediate response I got this week was: "No". Five or six years ago, the response would have been: "Yes, but we do not want too much interference". This situation is getting worse. I know that it is a particular problem for the United Kingdom, but it is not exclusive to the United Kingdom. It is getting worse right across Europe. We only have to look at the turn-out in the European Parliamentary elections to see that.
Why is this so? Why this lack of enthusiasm for the EU? To begin with, we must remember that the best advertising in the world will not sell a poor product. Even if you have a first-class product, if you do not market it properly it will not sell. We must make sure that the product is good first and then make sure that we advertise it effectively. I fear we are doing neither.
There can be no doubt that, when history is written, the greatest achievement of the 20th century will be seen to be the creation of the EU. It has delivered peace and prosperity for half the continent for half the century. Now the other half of the continent is queuing up to get in, yet my constituents want to get out.
I am not an expert in marketing; I know there are no simple solutions; I certainly know more propaganda leaflets are not the answer. Let me just suggest a few possibilities. What happened to President Prodi's idea of a rapid rebuttal unit? If it is in existence, it does not appear to be very effective. If they are giving answers, can I suggest that they e-mail their answers to the MEPs as well, so we can use the information, not just to the press, who often just spike it.
The Commissioner said quite rightly that new technology is good. We must make more and better use of it. We must make sure that our website address is known. we could maybe spend some of the Socrates money giving every student in Europe a computer mouse mat so that they can see the website address of the European Parliament."@en1
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