What the citizens don't know. The European Union has just entered a period packed with politically significant events - the Eurogroup's position on global monetary questions, the European Parliament's vote on its future composition, the Lisbon summit with a view to endorsing the new European treaty, etc. Before focusing on such events, I intend in this column to highlight the parallel intensification of developments that, although less visible, have a particular interest for the daily life of Europeans. One too often forgets to what extent the initiatives and decisions of the EU weigh on the world and the standard of living of its citizens. European personalities who are not well-known other than in their own specialised spheres are often at the origin of such developments. For example, how many years will it take for the man in the street to know that the Erasmus student exchange programme is an EU programme launched by Jacques Delors in his time, and then developed and finalised by the European Commission despite the hostility or reticence of several capitals? In the first film devoted to Erasmus - which recounted the tale of several young people who got to know each other through this programme, their discoveries and acquaintances made possible and the doors opened - there was not a word to say that it was a Union initiative.
400 million beneficiaries. The situation has not changed so very much. Last summer, millions and millions of European mobile phone users gradually took advantage of the radical reduction in trans-European roaming tariffs: the cost of phoning from one member state to another has fallen by about 60% (see Isabelle Lamberty's analysis in our bulletin No 9516). The Eurotariff was a spectacular success. 50 million subscribers enjoyed its advantages at the end of July, 200 million at the end of August, and 400 million at the end of September. Who, among these 400 million beneficiaries, knows that the result is essentially due to one person, a woman who fought for months and months to have the European regulation on mobile phone tariffs approved by the summer? Who knows that that woman is Viviane Reding, European Information Society Commissioner? Circles concerned know her only too well, as most of the telephone companies sought to block her project, saying it had no viable economic base and that they would be ruined by it. But Ms Reding stood firm. She knew that it was possible and managed to win over the European Parliament first of all and then the Council. Today, the operators themselves are using the Eurotariff in their advertising to attract new customers. Several operators, in the Netherlands for example, have decided to practice tariffs even lower than those imposed by the Reding regulation - and they are doing well. Ms Reding announced that she will now tackle two other services: the SMS (written telephone messages) and data transmission. She invites operators to cut their prices voluntarily, adding: “If they don't do it, we shall act”. That is, establish a compulsory European regulation. Facts go to show that she is not one to make empty warnings.
Children's safety. Although Ms Reding was already known in professional circles for her work on cinema and television policy, the name of her colleague, Meglena Kuneva, is really new to European circles as she has only been a European commissioner since Bulgaria entered the Union and because the tasks entrusted to her, consumer protection, had initially made people smile. This is only a semi-portfolio, some experts in European institutions said. In fact, everything depends on the spirit in which responsibility is assumed. Ms Kuneva had to deal with children's safety as soon as she took office and had several robust contacts on this subject with the Chinese authorities, meeting them in Beijing to discuss the subject of several million toys made in China (either on behalf of large western firms that relocated their production there, or from China's own production consisting very often of counterfeits of European or American toys). These problems were earlier exclusively assessed from the angle of trade policy and possibly industrial policy. Ms Kuneva said, quite rightly, that consumer protection is at least as important - mainly when the safety of children is at stake. This element is now part of the vast framework of EU/China relations, to which - it must be said - the Chinese authorities have totally signed up to, often finding themselves in conflict with their own producers and exporters.
Should one consider as pure chance the fact that the initiatives cited with a direct influence on the life of citizens were taken by two women?
(F.R.)