Brussels chief says EU has failed to connect with voters

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/14/weu14.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/10/14/ixportal.html

The Brussels official charged with selling the European Union to voters said yesterday it had - to date - been the creation of a "small elite" and failed to connect with the public.

Margot Wallstrom, the European Commission's vice-president for communication, said: "This has been a project for a small elite, a political elite. That has worked - until now."

The Swede continued in the same confessional vein as she launched a commission campaign to improve Europe's image after this year's No votes in France and Holland on the draft EU constitution. "Has it ever been alive, European democracy? That is a very good question," she said.

Mrs Wallstrom, a devoted European federalist, unveiled plans to set up national debates across Europe on what citizens want from the union. Commissioners and senior EU officials are to travel the continent debating students, young people, politicians, trades unions, academics and business groups.

Populist extreme right wing politicians made an issue against the EU. The rise of Fortuyn in Holland contributed to this, not the other way.

It's far too big not to care about it. The difference now is that the EU is failing to win referendum's on it's treaties in places where previously they did.

And it's not only the far right who have gripes with the EU, the "non" vote in France was a mixture of both the far right nasties such as Le Pen and also the far left, pitted against centrists who are often seen as being elitist and out-of-touch. The No votes in France and Holland are not a victory for any one particular political faction because there is such a wide variety of things that fuelled those no votes.

it was the Socialist Party that was visibly celebrating the "no" vote on the constitution here in Holland, not only the far right.

DemEx