WORRYING TREND: FALLING LEVELS OF CITIZENS INTERESTED IN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

According to the European Parliament Eurobarometer of 21 August 2013 'One year to go until the 2014 European Elections', the levels of citizens interested in European politics is falling. A majority of respondents say they have no interest in European politics, while a little more than 4 in 10 say they take an interest.

Here below are the results (June 2013) of those taking an interest in European Affairs by Member States:

1. Netherlands: 61% (Founding Member)
2. Croatia: 59%
3. Finland: 57%
4. Denmark: 56%
5. Poland: 53%
6. Ireland: 52%
7. Luxembourg: 51% (Founding Member)
8. Germany: 49% (Founding Member)
9. Sweden: 49%
10. Malta: 48%
11. Belgium: 47% (Founding Member)
12. Italy: 46% (Founding Member)
13. Greece: 45%
14. Austria: 45%
15. Hungary: 43%
16. Latvia: 42%
17. Bulgaria: 42%
18. United Kingdom: 42%
19. Cyprus: 38%
20. Lithuania: 38%
21. Slovenia: 36%
22. France: 36% (Founding Member)
23. Slovakia: 36%
24. Estonia: 35%
25. Romania: 33%
26. Portugal: 29%
27. Spain: 29%
28. Czech Republic: 25%

Bottom Line:

Politicians across Europe need to openly discuss the future of Europe with those who have a different opinion of it. The pro-European side will have to come with strong proposals and arguments. Politicians should put forward a subtle message showing the importance of the European Parliament in sectors such as agriculture, environmental issues or the internal market.

Long-known arguments that the EU ensures peace and prosperity in Europe, true in themselves, are no longer enough. Another treaty and another institutional reform will not save the Union. Integration must not be a goal unto itself. It has to serve people. Europeans today need social security, work and a contract on how solidarity is to look like  for instance in the EU budget. This is what the debate on the future Union should focus on.

That is why slogans like “more Europe”, repeated ad nauseam by European politicians, have to translate into real things: more work (unemployment among young EU citizens is dramatically high), more equal opportunities, more control over banks and financial institutions or, in the end, over governments, whose irresponsible policies have contributed to the debt crisis.

Thus appeals for “more Europe” must not obscure the question whether the present crisis really has to bury the European welfare state model forever. We’ve already seen the best of it, its opponents are saying with malicious satisfaction, but we still do not know what will replace it. Or, rather, what we want to create in Europe instead.

Answers to such questions must not be hammered out exclusively in behind-closed-doors bargaining or, worse, arise as a random function of the eurocrats and leaders’ wrangling at one “summit” after another. The fact that there is no debate on the future union of Europeans is not only the politicians’ fault but is due also, in some countries, to an acute lack of interest in Europe.

Political, fiscal, banking union… Translating these slogans into everyday language and showing citizens how such reforms will affect the job market, opportunities for young people or the way taxpayers’ money is spent requires a lot of hard work. But doing it is the politicians’ duty.

It is European citizens who have to endorse the reforms and assume the risk of potential failures. The EU will cease making sense when people stop believing in it. Each one of us should ask themselves fundamental questions – what the EU means for me and why I want it to survive. We are a community of half a billion people living in what well may be the best place in the world. Perhaps the 2014 European Parliament elections are a good time for asking Europeans whether they want to continue together or prefer going their own ways. We think we should not worry about the outcome of such a referendum.