White knight

All in SW

I love this one!! Margot Wallstrom is the one with the loosest gob in Brussels, and her website is an absolute hoot. She made the mistake of inviting comments from the citizens, only to be carpet-bombed by Lansce-Watkins - poor woman!! Mind you, her bra size appears to be DDD, or have I got that wrong?

John Kelly

EU moves on to Plan D to win trust
· Democracy, dialogue and debate needed for change
· Citizens are being ignored, says vice-president

Leo Cendrowicz in Brussels
Friday October 14, 2005

Guardian

The EU has been the project of political elites and it needs radical change in order to become democratic, Margot Wallström, the European commission's vice-president, warned yesterday, adding that the union needed to reform its institutions dramatically to gain popular support.
"This has been a project for a small elite, a political elite. That has worked, until now," she said at the launch of the EC's communications strategy. "Has it ever been alive, European democracy? That is a very good question."

The communications strategy, which has been dubbed Plan D for representing democracy, dialogue and debate, comes in response to surveys showing that public trust in the EU has fallen, from 50% in the autumn of 2004 to 44% this spring.

"It's clear that to convince Europeans to the European idea, the institutions have to change," she said. "The institutions must lead by example in their ability to reform and to be more transparent and more efficient." She thought European governments appeared to be afraid of public opinion following the no votes in the Dutch and French EU constitution referendums in the spring,

She also warned that the EU needed to transform itself economically, and said that 20 million unemployed people in the EU was a "totally unacceptable" figure.

Ms Wallström, a former Swedish social affairs minister, is noted in Brussels for her outspoken views. Last year she became the first senior member of the commission to write a weblog, which has attracted attention for mixing descriptions of her family life with often controversial thoughts on EU politics. She says she believes EU institutions should connect with people through TV, radio and the internet using celebrities and public figures as UN-style goodwill ambassadors.

She warned that the EU would not gain democratic legitimacy if the public did not become more involved in debates on its aims. "Nobody said it was easy. It isn't easy to engage in a democratic dialogue." To gain citizens' approval you had to engage them.

She noted that globalisation created uncertainty, with people asking tough questions about job security, pensions, migration and living standards. But the EU needed to grasp these opportunities rather than use globalisation as a scapegoat, she said.

However, Plan D was not about resuscitating the EU constitution. "This is not a rescue operation ... it is very difficult to see how it can be brought to life, so it will remain on the backburner." She added that it would be insulting to popular opinion to try "constitutional engineering"so as to make the document more palatable.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005