Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-14-Speech-5-042"
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"en.20000414.3.5-042"2
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"Mr President, the Union is faced with major tasks and its further development depends to a great extent on what we do here and now. Enlargement to include the countries of Eastern and Central Europe is the biggest challenge in the Community’s history, and if we do not tackle the issue correctly now, we are putting a lot at risk. It is extremely important that we explain to the Union’s citizens, and the citizens of the candidate countries, what the Union stands for. An information and communication strategy must, therefore, be high on our agenda. I am looking forward with great interest to hearing your answer, Commissioner Reding, because I know that information is also of great interest to you: an interest which we share, moreover, because we are both journalists by profession. I believe that we also have the same interest in the Union’s communication and information activities being organised in as close proximity to the citizens as possible and in our applying the policy so that the various groups in society get the information which they most need.
The keywords are coordination – partly when it comes to sharing information between the Commission and the Parliament – decentralisation, targeting and optimum exploitation of the available information technology. I am curious as to how the Commission will go about the task. I imagine that the Commission’s offices in the major European cities will be involved and that they will be assigned tasks and responsibilities and given resources to contact and inform the public at large. The experts, the authorities and those who are genuinely interested in the EU should not have problems getting information, and I must admit that I am a little sceptical when I hear about an "interinstitutional" library in Brussels or similar central functions. I would much rather that the Commission’s office in Copenhagen was a little more accessible. It is the Commission’s local offices, in cooperation with Parliament’s local offices, which must meet the man on the street, the man who always thinks that Brussels is so extremely far away. He must understand that Brussels means all of us together, as Commission President Prodi put it. It is a very difficult task because, in my opinion, the gap between the citizens and the institutions is wide, and with the major challenges which the Union is facing the task will become no less great. Enlargement, the Commission’s ambitious 5-year plan, the Commission’s plans for reform, the Intergovernmental Conference: there is a lot to provide information about, and I think that this is an urgent matter. I believe that you share many of my views, Mrs Reding."@en1
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