The Disconnection Of Europe

In an article in the International Herald Tribune this week. Thomas Fuller takes a realistic view of the low turnout in the European elections, in which only one in five Poles voted, and turnout in France, Portugal and Spain fell to the lowest levels ever recorded.

Yet the low turnout came at the very time when Europe's governments claim they are making an effort to reach out to their citizens by drafting a European constitution. Fuller sees the problem as one of poor communication and a failure to connect, quoting the European Studies expert Timothy Garton Ash:

"I don't think that the European Union is going to fall apart like an oil tanker breaking up on the rocks," Garton Ash said. "I think the danger is that it becomes like the Holy Roman Empire, a structure of enormous complexity and ever greater irrelevance."

The risk, he said, is that as the Union gradually becomes less effective and more distant from its citizens, "real politics will take place elsewhere."

While some commentators like to make comparisons between the European Union and the United States which, superficially at least, it is supposed to resemble, reading the low turnout as a kind of "protest vote", and pointing to the low turnout in American elections, Fuller notes:

But there is a sense that the Union is in many ways a more fragile flower. In a café in Paris, Berlin or Rome, the notion of the warring tribes of Europe may come up in nothing more than conversation about history - until, perhaps, one is reminded of the Balkans or a country like Moldova. Most Europeans cannot find Moldova on a map, but it is now a few hundred kilometers from the EU's borders and has a nasty, festering secessionist problem aggravated by the presence of a Soviet-era ammunition dump.

It's because of issues like these, Fuller suggests, that the question of how to overcome the apathy is so urgent.

And it's not helped by the Euro-speak and bureaucratese that characterize the EU's official communications:

An example: "Under the Amsterdam Treaty it was decided to move JHA from the third pillar to the first pillar with an automatic transition clause." (Rough translation: Justice and home affairs issues can be addressed on a European level.)

Or this: "The IGC is currently discussing the passerelle clause on the financial perspectives." (Rough translation: Leaders are discussing a change in methods for voting on the budget.)

"Finding the roots of European apathy is not specifically on the agenda for Thursday's meeting of leaders to discuss the constitution," writes Fuller. "But maybe it should be."


Hat tip: Mari-Ann Kelam