Brussels seeks TV makeover

The French and Dutch rejections of the EU constitution have provoked plans to combat rising Euroscepticism with the help of the media. According to Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent of The Times, Alfie Moon, the EastEnders market trader, could soon be informing his customers about the benefits of EU food safety legislation and Brussels consumer protection directives.

It is all part of a European Commission plan to combat rising Euroscepticism. The Commission, announcing a long-awaited “communications action plan” yesterday, hopes to work with programme makers across the continent to promote positive messages.

Borrowing a UN tactic, it also intends to approach Europhile celebrities, such as the comedian Eddie Izzard, to act as ambassadors to sell the benefits of Brussels law-making. The Commission wants to make programmes, possibly quiz shows and docu­dramas, that sell the EU vision.

The strategy was devised with the help of Peter Mandelson, the European Trade Commissioner and former new Labour spin-doctor. It involves hiring an army of “communication specialists”, running communications courses for its staff, training journalists and inviting them on trips with Commissioners, and setting up focus groups to shape the way policies are promoted.

There will also be a special rebuttal unit, aimed at the British media, to try to kill off misleading stories before people start believing them.

There are 50 action points, the most ambitious of which is the abolition of Euro-speak, so that the public can understand what Eurocrats are saying.

Mr Mandelson said that, after the two referendum defeats: “I sense that the Commission today has a golden opportunity to assert this fresh political leadership.”

Just how seriously do the EU strategists take people’s votes?

Source: The Times, 21 July 2005