Wallström wants cultural change

By Dana Spinant

Date: 20/01/05

Margot Wallström, the European commissioner for communication strategy, says that she wants "more than words" from her colleagues in order to improve communication and make the EU more popular with citizens.

"Colleagues have expressed their support and understanding, but actually I will demand they do something. Until now it is only words. We will very soon come to action," says the EU's first ever communications commissioner.

"It will not be enough if they are polite and encouraging - they will also have to change a lot."

Wallström will next month hand over to her colleagues a handbook on communication to make sure that "they integrate communication aspects into the work they do".

But the Swede acknowledges that her task is tough. She admits that the Commission, long dominated by a French style of administration, will have to go through a "truly cultural change" in order to be able to communicate more effectively. She notes that one of the Commission's problems is that of "being afraid of too much openness", a way of thinking which is "in the walls here".

"There are things that can be done in the short term, but to change the culture will take more than five years," she says.

One thing that she would like done immediately is to ensure that a flood of important decisions do not all come on the same day, which would mean that only some would be reported by the media. "We should avoid having five heavy decisions one day and nothing next week."

On 18 January Wallström chaired the first meeting of the commissioners' group on programming and communication which is composed of six other commissioners, including two vice-presidents of the EU executive.

But the communications commissioner insists her work is not "just about spin" but about substance too. "We will never be able to sell the unsellable. Our policy will have to be better."

She insists that better consultation and more focus on implementation of EU policies should be the priority. "We have to consult better, to make sure that in designing proposals we devise how we can get feedback."

She also believes that "with 25 member states, [EU] laws will have to be less detailed and there should be more framework laws", which should then be transposed by member states in their legislation in a way that suits their administrative culture.

Wallström admits that her task is made difficult by the fact that the cultural and identity aspects of EU integration have been neglected in favour of a pragmatic approach which she calls "solutions united".

While the historic projects that have excited the EU over the last 15 years, the single currency and eastern enlargement are already launched, she says that the team of José Manuel Barroso has its own grand project. "We have a down-to-earth project, competitiveness: more jobs, more security for citizens. It is a grand project."

But she complains that it may be difficult to market a project called "the Lisbon Strategy" - "it sounds like some kind of travel agency". She suggests instead that the EU's blueprint for becoming the most competitive economy in the word by 2010 should be called: "The best Europe can offer."

Margot Wallström, the first European Commissioner for Communication Strategy, said that she wanted 'more than words' from her colleagues in order to improve communication and make the EU more popular with citizens. Acknowledging the challenge of the task she admitted that the Commission, long dominated by a French style of administration, would have to go through a 'truly cultural change' in order to be able to communicate more effectively. She noted that one of the Commission's problems was that of 'being afraid of too much openness'.