Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

ediscovering europe in the netherlands
often focuses one-sidedly on (alleged) fraud, improper use of funds and the
negative aspects of the Brussels bureaucracy.
In short, many Dutch politicians and journalists regard Europe as an
unmarketable product. Dutch politicians have little to gain from positioning
themselves on European issues in the media, and journalists in general
show little interest. The result is a vicious circle: because Europe is insufficiently
embedded in Dutch politics and society, the media show no interest
in addressing European issues. The lack of media coverage in turn
makes it more difficult to embed eu policy in the Dutch political system,
as information on eu issues fails to reach citizens.
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This vicious circle has negative effects on the legitimacy of Dutch eu policy
(Baetens and Bursens 2005). Firstly, inadequate communication on eu
issues exacerbates the lack of public knowledge and participation and undermines
the input legitimacy of Dutch eu policy. Secondly, the lack of information
increases the perceived complexity and lack of transparency of the
eu, which complicates the satisfactory functioning of accountability mechanisms
even further. Thirdly, if the scope, the content and the effects of eu
policies are made insufficiently clear to the public, output legitimacy is also
jeopardised. Finally, if media coverage on eu issues remains structurally
defective, the gap between national politicians and citizens on European
issues will only tend to widen and this will create an obstacle for longerterm
processes of identification with the eu as a political community.
6.3.2 opportunities
What opportunities might be pursued to overcome these structural problems?
It is precisely because the Dutch public are relatively poorly and onesidedly
informed about Europe that they are highly dependent upon the
national media for information and opinion formation. Moreover, as the
Dutch appear to exhibit a genuine need for information on European
issues, more and better media coverage could have a major influence on
public opinion (Page and Shapiro 1992; De Vreese 2003: 1). Opinion polls
even suggest that a majority of the Dutch population feel that the Dutch
media currently devote too little attention to the eu (European Commission
2006b, Standard Eurobarometer 65). In principle, therefore, the
media might already have enough incentives to meet this demand and
thus contribute to reducing the lack of knowledge and understanding of
the eu (Baetens and Bursens 2005: 4).
As observed before, the news media are indispensable in linking politicians
and citizens in the national and European democratic process. On the one