Irish attempt to clarify EU message

Date: 04/07/1996

By Rory Watson

IRELAND aims to boost public support and understanding of the EU by producing a punchy mission statement during its six-month presidency.

The idea is being championed by Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, who is convinced that the Union must sharpen its communication skills and explain its objectives and achievements in a clear message which citizens can readily understand.

“The European public needs to see in more personal terms what the Union is doing. The opposition to Maastricht in Denmark and France was a signal to European leaders of the degree of alienation. We need to explain the EU's tasks in more communicable terms. If the Union is not understood by its citizens, it is not so much a failure on the part of the Commission as a failure on the part of politicians,” Bruton explained on the eve of Ireland's fifth EU presidency which began on Monday (1 July).

The Irish premier has already offered his own formula for a possible mission statement: “Secure peace in Europe; safe streets for European citizens; sound money in pockets and purses; and secure jobs for Europeans.”

He conceded that the four themes were by no means new, but added: “What is lacking is the way European leaders communicate with the electorate. We need that process of simplification.”

Bruton's first opportunity to test his ideas with fellow EU leaders will come in mid-October. Initially lukewarm about the French proposal for a special European summit to keep up the political pressure behind treaty reform, the Irish government has now accepted the idea.

“I was reluctant to raise expectations and then get a Euro-disappointment. We do not need another Euro-disappointment.

I see the meeting being very general. We could perhaps consider our vision of the Union in the next century and get a better understanding of some practical issues which are holding us up, so that we could perhaps do more at our December summit,” said Bruton.

At that end-of-year summit, the Union will have to take the formal decision confirming that the single currency will be introduced in those countries which meet the convergence criteria on 1 January 1999.

But the Irish presidency faces other challenges if the path towards economic and monetary union is to be negotiated smoothly.

In a letter to his EU colleagues, Irish Finance Minister Ruairi Quinn has confirmed the need to finalise details of the stability pact and of the relationship between members of the single currency and those initially remaining outside in the months ahead.

The technical preparatory work for legislation on the use of the new Euro must also be completed by the end of the year, as must the selection of the designs for the notes and coins which will be introduced in the third stage of EMU.

Tackling unemployment will top the Irish agenda as the government tries to put into practice the many declarations which have emerged from past EU summits.

“If we want to sell the merits of a single currency to rather sceptical European citizens, then we have to convince them a single currency will be good for employment as well, and that means that employment will be a very tangible item on our agenda,” said Quinn.

The high priority which the Irish government also intends to give to the fight against drug trafficking and organised crime during its presidency was underlined last week by the murder in Dublin of 36-year-old journalist Veronica Guerin. Well known for her reporting of the activities of different criminal networks in the Irish capital, Guerin's life had already been threatened and she made no secret of the fact that she knew who had ordered the earlier intimidation.

Underlying the six-month EU agenda which the Irish government discussed with the European Commission on Monday (1 July), is the determination to demonstrate that a small Union country can run the presidency at least as efficiently as larger member states, if not more so.

As the Union fine-tunes the changes it would like to see made to the Maastricht Treaty, with the aim of producing the general outline of a new draft treaty in time for the summit in Dublin, Ireland intends to lose no opportunity to ensure that the rights and position of small EU countries are not eroded.