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Speech by EU Commission Vice President Wallström at Columbia University

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you very much for inviting me to Columbia University.

Many of you here are communication specialists. You know how vital communication is to democracy. But the world of communication is changing fast! What's the most effective medium now for dialogue between politicians and voters? Which are the best forums for discussing political issues?

Above all, how do you get people interested in politics? How do you get voters to turn out and vote? These are key issues for modern democracies. They affect the current Presidential campaign in the US. They will certainly affect the 2009 campaign for elections to the European Parliament.

I'll come back to those issues later. But first I want to focus on "the EU at 50".

Fifty can be a difficult age: a time of mid-life crisis. A time for asking ourselves where we are and where want to go.

You may have heard the story about the tourist in Ireland who gets lost in the country lanes. He stops to ask a local farmer "Which way to Dublin?" The farmer scratches his head for a moment and then says: "Well, if I was wanting to get to Dublin, I wouldn't start from here!"

European politics sometimes feels like that! But at least the tourist knew where he wanted to go. The EU at 50 isn't so sure!

Let me spend a few minutes addressing three questions:

1. Where has the European Union got to?

2. How should we move forward from here?

3. How do we put trans-national communication at the service of trans-national democracy?

I'll start by showing you a short video clip, courtesy of AMO and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in the Netherlands.

[Video clip: 1 minute]

The message is clear. The European Union is not just about trade or economics or bureaucracy. It's about putting behind us, for ever, the horrors of our past - the wars, the totalitarian regimes and ideologies. It's about embracing freedom and democracy. It's a unique continent-wide experiment in building solidarity between States and peoples.

Has the experiment worked so far? You bet!

Peace among EU member states is taken for granted.

We enjoy some of the world's highest standards of living, helped by the frontier-free single market and the single currency (the euro).

In 1957 there were six member states: today there are 27, with others queuing up to join - provided they can meet our high standards in terms of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.

The EU has become the world's largest trading bloc and the world's biggest donor of aid to developing countries.

It is also, far and away, the most important trading partner of the United States. Goods, services and investments worth well over 1 trillion dollars flow between us every year.

So Europe has come a very long way in half a century.

But not everything in the garden is rosy.

What are the challenges we face?

First, staying competitive in the global economy. Europe faces increasing competition from rising giants such as China, India and Brazil. We cannot and will not compete with them on the basis of low wages or poor social protection: so we must find other ways.

Second, there is the demographic challenge. Our population is ageing. At present, for every retired person in the EU there are four people of working age. In 20 years' time, there will be only three and in 40 years' time only two potential workers to every pensioner.

A third challenge is security. Security of energy supplies. Security in the face of terrorism and other international crime. Security in terms of public health hazards like 'mad cow disease' and bird flu.

Fourth, climate change. This is a global challenge and it calls for global action - including action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to increase our use of clean, renewable energy sources.

Last but not least, there is the challenge of communication and democracy. Opinion polls show that seven out of ten people in the European Union know little or nothing about what it is and what it does.

As Jeremy Fleishman wrote in the Los Angeles Times, many people see the EU as "an aloof, bureaucratic oddity that prattles on in a maze of buildings in Brussels".

They don't see its connection with their daily lives.

Too few feel they have a say in EU decision-making.

Less than half voted in the last European Parliament elections.

One reason for this situation is that, over the past 50 years, European integration has been driven by national politicians - and they have not done enough to explain the project and to consult their voters. They find it more convenient to blame "Brussels" for unpopular EU policies than to accept responsibility for those policies.

So it is hardly surprising that many EU citizens see Europe as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Hardly surprising that French and Dutch voters rejected the EU Constitution in 2005.

This brings me to my second question: how should the European Union move on from here? Let me give you some brief ideas.

First, to stay competitive in the global economy the EU must invest more in research and technological development. The current figure is less than 2% of our collective GDP - compared to 3% in the US.

Research is the key to innovation - and it is in sectors such as nanotechnology and biotechnology that Europe will seek to maintain the strong lead it shares with the United States.

Second, to face the demographic challenge we have to reform our social security and pension systems. We need to make them sustainable, so that future generations can enjoy their benefits.

We must also develop the concept of flexicurity: flexible working conditions combined with active measures to help workers find jobs - by moving to another region or country if necessary.

Third, the security challenge calls for action on several fronts:

In any case, Europe welcomes legal and skilled immigration. We need immigrants and their young families to rejuvenate our population and swell our workforce. We must, however, do much more to integrate these people into mainstream society and to combat racial discrimination.

This is an area where I believe the EU can learn valuable lessons from the US. America was built on immigration: it is the land of opportunity where anyone, whatever their origin, can build a new life and be part of the American dream.

Europe too has a dream - a dream of a tolerant, inclusive, democratic and sustainable society - and we need to welcome people from all over the world to be part of that dream and to make it a reality.

Fourth: to tackle climate change, we intend to cut our carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 - and we will go further if other leading economies agree to do the same. We will also reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, ensuring that renewable sources supply 20% of our energy needs by 2020.

The EU and US clearly have an interest in working together on all these global issues. We need to join forces at the WTO to ensure that world trade will grow in a manner which is fair and balanced and which drives sustainable development world wide.

We sometimes have different approaches to these issues, even where we share the same objectives. The EU is less likely to use 'hard' power and more likely to take a 'soft' approach. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, the EU "speaks softly and carries a big carrot". In other words, we prefer persuasion to coercion.

But the EU has not renounced 'hard' power: EU troops and police are widely deployed in international operations - usually in close cooperation with the US and other NATO partners.

Finally, what about the communication challenge?

That is my third question for today.

How can we put trans-national communication at the service of trans-national democracy?

The European Commission has made communication a strategic priority - and I have the honour to be the first Commission member with specific responsibility for Communication Policy.

My department does a lot to keep the public informed.

We hold daily briefings for the one thousand three hundred journalists based in Brussels.

We produce TV footage of EU events, which we supply, free of charge, to professional broadcasters.

We run the world's biggest internet site - "Europa" - which contains more than five and a half million pages, and is visited by around 500 000 people every day.

We publish and distribute millions of information booklets - in all 23 official EU languages and a few more besides.

We put videos on the You Tube internet site.

And on and on.

But the Commission alone cannot possibly close the communication gap between the policymakers and the public. Nor can any of the EU institutions. We simply don't have the resources - human or financial.

It's a job that requires political commitment and real effort by the member state governments. I sincerely hope they will assume this responsibility. If the governments and institutions work together on "communicating Europe" we could see striking results.

Communicating Europe is not about propaganda. It's not about "selling" the European project to a sceptical public. What European citizens need, and deserve, is a properly-informed public debate on the question of our common future. There has to be a national debate within each country - but we also need a trans-national debate between the peoples of our 27 countries. That means creating innovative forums for a discussion that transcends language barriers and national borders. It won't be easy!

Even within national borders, there is a media problem. Most Europeans turn to television for their news and current affairs information: but national TV broadcasters give little prime time coverage to EU affairs.

Besides, more and more people are watching digital TV - avoiding commercials and any other content they don't want to see.

I know this is an issue here in the US too. Never before have your presidential candidates had so much money to spend on campaigning: but what is the point of spending it on commercials that people won't watch?

One obvious answer is to switch your campaigning to the Internet - and especially the blogosphere. This is where a lot of lively debate is already happening, as I know from my own blog.

Unfortunately, the Internet appeals far more to the young than to older people. And poorer families just don't have internet access.

There is also still the language issue: most Internet communication is in English, and many Europeans resent this. We like our diversity! So the net is not a panacea: we have to use different media for different audiences.

Finally, how do you overcome voter apathy? How do you get people to turn out and vote? Do you pay them from your campaign funds?! (Well, it would be one way of using all that cash!) My view is that we need to offer people real options - and, of course, governments have to deliver the policies people have voted for!

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have outlined where the EU is today, on its 50th birthday, and some of the major challenges it faces. Not least of these is the challenge of communication - informing the public, but also (and very importantly) listening to their views and concerns.

At 50, our hearing isn't as good as it should be: we need to invest in some good hearing aids!

It's a matter of democracy. The European Union exists for the sake of its citizens - the peoples of Europe. It is they who must set the EU's goals for the next 50 years and beyond.

If we can compare "the European project" to a great symphony, or a great opera, then I would say the divas have been on stage too long.

It's time to hear the 'chorus' - and there are half a billion voices in that chorus. EU leaders and policy-makers had better start listening to those voices - in earnest. The future depends on it.

Thank you.

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