On-line journal no. 4 – July 2012 - Modelling the New Europe

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On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe Issue no. 4/2012 Washington press corps a massive and tenacious body, the Brussels press corps is considerably more subdued. Princen and Kerremans suggest that “the European Union lacks an integrated ‘European Public Space.’ As a result, there are no or very little European news media and European wide debates, especially when compared with the media and public debates in the European Union’s Member States” (2005: 8). Saurugger also notes “what seems to be missing is a European demos with a shared identity, a common deliberative forum, and an open system of communication” (2005: 6). The overhaul of the exercise of power and the vectors of development offered by the information and communication technologies also alter the nature of political communication and require a fresh attitude from public authorities and new forms of public action. These new bases to civic participation are the sine qua non of the building of a Union-wide public space. At the risk of being swamped by the general voicing of opinions prompted by the speed and facility of the new communications tools, the European Union should, by means of innovations, which encourage communication between citizens, look for the opportunity to develop a democratic area. Building a European public space “European integration has delivered fifty years of stability, peace and economic prosperity. It has helped to raise standards of living, built an internal market, and strengthened the Union’s voice in the world. It has achieved results, which would not have been possible by individual Member States acting on their own. It has attracted a succession of applications for membership and in a few years’ time it will expand on a continental scale. It has also served as a model for regional integration across the world. […] Yet despite its achievements, many Europeans feel alienated from the Union’s work. This feeling is not confined to the European Institutions. It affects politics and political institutions around the globe. But for the Union, it reflects particular tensions and uncertainty about what the Union is and what it aspires to become, about its geographical boundaries, its political objectives and the way these powers are shared with the Member States” (EC 2001: 7). 83
On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe Issue no. 4/2012 These phrases amplify the real political nature of the problem. In fact, for the political communication to be able to build a bridge between Europe and its citizens (EC 2001: 3), it needs both sides to be stable. That is not the case. The European Union is in search for a new institutional system and the European citizens are confused by the complexity of a global world. It is more convenient not to offer new strategies, or develop new instruments to make that connection between Europe and its citizens possible, but to assign the European political communication with another objective: to energize the European democracy. As Europe becomes more concrete, the political process of unification loses support. This paradox is connected with the fable legitimacy of the European institutions. Researchers (see Boual 1999) remind us that the political construction of Europe was and is an elitist process where the citizens are more excluded than involved. They mention the problems tied to the absence of real political parties, the European juridical illegibility or the lack of imagination of the European elites trapped in a sterile debate between federation and confederation. Politicians, who consider only the national framework as genuine, or they consider necessary to associate the civil society with the European process, sustain the absence of legitimacy of the European process. The EU’s institutions cannot live in a void. They need the support of European public opinion, and if they lose it, their own future will be endangered. If more democracy at the European level is the answer – as has been claimed for decades – what can be done to foster it? Successive treaties and projects like the constitution are only one answer. The other must be the creation of a European “public sphere” and a genuine European public opinion. The debate shows that there is not a panacea for approaching Europe to its citizens and create a veritable European conscience and mentality. The solution lies in details. Journalistic and informative platforms are needed as much as think tanks to make EU more comprehensible. Europeans must understand that their national universe does not end where Europe starts. Today, with the abandon of the constitutional treaty, Europe is in crisis. It is time to 84
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Bibliographie On-line Journal Model
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Introduction On-line Journal Modell
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Table no. 1- Proposed indicators 1
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On-line journal no. 4 – July 2012 - Modelling the New Europe

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