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Between reality and propaganda, the Commission will have to choose

(B2) 

One-way transparency

It can be noted that the desire for transparency - often invoked by the European Commission - sometimes turns out to be one-way, as in the area of ​​ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Thus double counting has - so far - been very rarely, if ever, mentioned by the European Commission. And it is only half-heartedly that the latter recognizes that the only instrument which counts, which has legal value for the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, is the deposit of the act of ratification. Which is all the same embarrassing for an institution which invokes "transparency" every day and is officially the "guardian of the Treaty".

A choice of strategy

However, the Member States are slowly ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon at their own pace. Because they must solve each of the internal problems: decentralized organization as in Finland, with the Aaland Islands, legal hierarchy as in Germany or the Czech Republic, political positioning of the President in Finland, the Czech Republic (again) and Poland, for example (two of these three countries being in a regime of political cohabitation). Why not report on this slow but sure progression, rather than announcing a victorious figure - 24 ratifications - and actually realizing that this figure is not quite accurate?

The slow reality seems safer to me than a half-truth delivered quickly. For several reasons. Philosophically, the game of choosing the number that suits bothers me. It seems to me to be closer to propaganda than to information. Between a half-truth and a half-lie, the boundary is weak. Politically, this posture is dangerous. it accredits the popular idea that "something is being hidden from us in Brussels". But it is a fact: if we can criticize the European institutions, they often have a much more credible behavior and mode of operation and that any government or administration of a national Member State. If we want to continue to convince people of the merits of European integration, we must therefore stop trying to deceive the people, with some dubious artifices. painful, but it is necessary.

Stop propaganda and deliver adult information

Some analysts believed that the Constitution would be ratified one day, that making a new treaty was not possible, that Europe was making a mistake by accepting the countries of Eastern Europe (see an analysis on Ukraine) etc. This is a mistake: Europe has unsuspected resources. And the peoples that compose it are adults. This is the main lesson that can be learned from the three No referendums (France, Netherlands, Ireland).

Europe must regain its ability to speak out, to intervene. She must stop taking refuge behind a cautious self-esteem, refusing as soon as a national project is too sensitive, to say what she thinks about it - so as not to offend one or the other. -, and relegating the problem to the Member State. She should not say: I "can't say" when she means "I don't want to say". It cannot, permanently, discard certain issues - the speculative financial crisis, the increase in poverty, the growing wealth gap - by permanently rejecting these issues on the Member States (and therefore on the peoples).

The world has changed. The population changes. Europe must give up some of its rigidities which no longer hold water and stick to the language of truth. It is with this that she will win back the hearts and the vote of the citizens. Not by chimerical lies of papers...

(NGV)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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