Demagoguery is an easy instrument to use. We should get a grip on it. Within certain limits it's acceptable and understandable - sometimes even useful. But its role was perhaps excessive in a few European issues last week. Here are three cases in which Europe should not fall into the trap of demagoguery.
Turkey - accepting reality. The first issue is the Turkish affair. Some European institutions attribute more importance to making their reactions known to the evolution in the domestic Turkish situation than to assessing its repercussions on EU-Turkey relations. It is understandable that the European Parliament is in a state of indignation at these events of which it disapproves, and it also has the task of protesting in defence of great principles. Yet it would perhaps be useful to assess the repercussions of the Turkish government's attitude on its relations with the EU by raising some real questions. For example - is it still useful to continue speaking about Turkey as an accession candidate? Would it not be more opportune, and more courageous, to assess whether Turkey's application for EU membership is still valid? And to state whether relations between the EU and Turkey are still desirable and possible, considering it as an accepted fact that accession has become a dialectic fiction? If I'm not mistaken, no such approach is currently being taken in the European Parliament.
In Turkey, the parliamentary majority of Muslim forces is - and will remain - solid. With accession to be ruled out, Europe-Turkey cooperation obviously remains useful and unavoidable. The European Parliament could take action on this situation and discuss it - instead of being limited to easy resolutions which provoke insulting reactions from Ankara (quoted in EUROPE 10867).
Officially on behalf of the EU, Catherine Ashton stated that this is not the right time to isolate Turkey, but rather to pursue mutual rapprochement. The EU should abandon the illusion of accession and prepare for inevitable cooperation. It is true that, in my opinion, an alternative possibility exists - but it's rather a pipedream. I'll talk about it one day if the cooperation project fails.
Greece - excessive rhetoric. The decision of the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, simply to suspend the activity of the public television network ERT on 11 June provoked a whole host of protests and solidarity. Everywhere in Europe reacted with indignation. Yet we then learned that: - the number of employees at ERT was over 2,600; - numerous posts were given by the directors to their political friends, who thus occupy well paid positions which are not very demanding in terms of time; - despite these figures, reports were ordered by private companies; - the three ERT channels had less than 15% audience share, with television viewers preferring programmes on private networks. In short, ERT was a symbol of corruption and clientelism.
Mr Samaras never said that he intended to close down ERT but he wants to relaunch it on a less grandiose and better controlled basis. Former employees will be able to apply to the new ERT. Samaras' initiative is one of the crucial efforts that Greece must make to fulfil its conditions of staying in the euro. Some people even believe that Greek television should come under the responsibility of the EU. If the protests lead Mr Samaras to take a backward step - at least in part - Greece will have one less chance of fulfilling the conditions for staying in the eurozone.
Youth unemployment - what's new? The meeting that has just taken place in Rome between the ministers for finance and ministers for social affairs from Germany, France, Italy and Spain has enabled an interesting exchange of views on the fight against youth unemployment and has launched ideas which can be picked up by the summit on 27-28 June. This is especially about increasing European funding and involving the EIB more - ahead of the mid-term results (see EUROPE 10867).
The discussion which preceded the meeting in Rome was more focused on the day-to-day working of the German programmes that prepare young Spaniards to take permanent jobs in Germany (see this column in EUROPE 10861 and 10864). We thus had the positive impression of projects that were already operational and of quick results, although the debate in Rome seemed more abstract and institutional with use of the Community budget as the top priority. The risk is still the same - that funding be used too much for studies, meetings, debates and programmes. It is crucial to come closer to tangible measures that work on the ground.
(FR/transl.fl)