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

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
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