Europe: 1 more week! And we'll talk about it again in 5 years, huh...
(BRUSSELS2) That's it! The European campaign is fully launched in France, with a big delay in ignition. And there are only a few days left to convince the undecided, abstainers of all stripes, skeptics. Newspapers and antennas redouble their attention to Europe, scrutinizing all the details, and are even full of articles of all kinds.
After the void, the overdose
We suddenly discover that there is no majority in the European Parliament. We discover that Brussels is full of lobbies (the horror! ;-). We dissect a series of projects undertaken or carried out to which we had barely paid attention until now. After an almost total void for five years, apart from a few peaks of interest, saturation and overdose have been reached. To the point that even a somewhat caring person, motivated by Europe, picks up. there is a relatively underrated one...
Europe: 5 weeks of attention for 5 years of politics
The "hype" to convince that Europe, it's good, it's beautiful, it's necessary... But it becomes counterproductive in the long term. The major defect of the armour, in France, is the absence of a daily European follow-up, with a few (rare) exceptions (Le Monde, Le Figaro, Les Echos, some specialized newspapers...) -. This lack of regularity of information on Europe — particularly in the press closest to the citizens (the regional press) — is one of the reasons for the ambient euroscepticism (*).
Let's not be surprised by the rampant eurosceptiscim
However, debates, legislative advances and political setbacks have not been lacking at European level. But they are remotely covered. "Brussels" always seems to be on another planet whose pulse we take from time to time. No question of investing too much. The distance helping, the temptation to take "quickly" the dispatch fallen on the AFP or Reuters wire is tempting: cut and paste, assemble, find a small angle. And it's done... If there is no dispatch, there is no information. Result: we very often discover a subject, a problem when it arrives... two or three years later on the desk of the National Assembly for the transposition of a directive for example. The inevitable feeling is that Europe imposes its aims. Whereas in fact, it is the French who have lost interest in the debates. This allows everyone to let off steam in a "Europe Bashing" of good quality.
A democratic flaw
There is a democratic "defect" here which does not need a Treaty or a Constitution to be corrected. All it takes is a bit of consistency, will and interest on the part of newspaper managers. There is then no point in spreading out in numerous editorials, pleading excessively on the need or the necessity of Europe. This will only convince the convinced... And there are fewer and fewer of them. Europe begins with daily information...
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
- This is not the only cause. The fact that Europe (European affairs) is still very little taught at school (and even at university, apart from a few very specific specialties) is another. The lack of European culture - almost general - of most of the various French officials, like many private or public executives, bears witness to this. The malfunctioning of the internal market (especially for citizens), the irresponsibility of European leaders (regardless of the failures, they do not call into question their mandate...), such as salaries that are disproportionate to real skills and the pretension constantly lecturing, as well as imposing certain totally unrealistic policies and conditions in a context of economic and political crisis. The banner unfurled over the European Commission testifies to this.
