Brusselian as newspeak. The EU's public discourse on enlargement and the constitutional treaty *.

AuthorTanasoiu, Cosmina

Abstract:

Problems of European integration and governance are increasingly analysed from a discursive perspective. This article seeks to examine the reasons behind the increasing distance between Europe/European Union and its citizens by taking a discourse and content analysis approach. It argues that the current situation is due to a "communication deficit" as a result of a tendency to rely upon an overly-technical vocabulary. Hence, unlike previous studies, the article does not focus upon the structural difficulties to develop an EU communication strategy but examines the language and the discourse coming from Brussels and used to "communicate" Europe to its citizens. It applies a case study approach by looking at the discourse coming from the European Commission on the Eastern enlargement and the Constitutional Treaty. Seen as one of the main reasons for the current public concern and for the failure of ratifying the Constitutional Treaty, the Eastern enlargement was in fact an event insufficiently explained or justified to the European public. Data collection is archive-based and it relies on primary sources from the European Commission (speeches, press conferences, and press releases).

Keywords: European integration, communication deficit, public discourse, European Commission, enlargement, the Constitutional Treaty

Throughout Europe, while the elites continue to actively promote a pro-European attitude, the public appears increasingly alienated from the European project. Through referenda, European and national elections, the public changes from a silent and consenting partner to an active and sometimes untamed political partner. Hence, increasingly the positions of the European electorate upset the agenda of political elites, rocking the chairs in chancelleries across Europe and pressing the mass media into announcing global funerals: "Europe in crisis", "Europe divided," "the end of a European era." The ratification process of the EU Constitutional Treaty shows that the general public is becoming increasingly Euro-sceptic and out of tune with European and national political elites. Seen primarily as an elite-led process, European integration has had to come face to face with those whose lives it affects the most, the average citizen.

Problems of European integration are increasingly analysed from a discursive, language focussed perspective (Diez, 1999). This article takes a discourse and content analysis approach to examine the reasons behind the gap between Europe/European Union and the European public. More than any other previous enlargements or policy initiation, the Eastern enlargement seems to have highlighted the need the European Union has to be explained to its citizens. The article uses the argument of an EU "communication deficit" to explain public attitudes. Unlike previous studies (Meyer, 1999) however, the article does not focus upon the structural difficulties to develop an EU communication strategy but examines the language and the discourse used to "communicate" Europe to its citizens. The article applies a case study approach by focussing upon the discursive narrative on Eastern enlargement and the Constitutional Treaty coming from Brussels, in particular the European Commission. The Commission is the institution mostly associated with Brussels' voice since it provides a "European" discourse, relatively free of national bias (Nugent, 2003), and because its officials are seen are belonging to a European culture, relatively independent of national politics (Hooghe, 1999).

Data collection is archive-based and it relies on primary sources of the Commission, (i.e. speeches, press conferences and press releases from Commission's officials: 294 on the Constitutional Treaty and 594 on the Eastern enlargement). The timeframe of this research is January 1, 2004 to June 1, 2006, hence covering the period between the year ten new states joined the EU and the Constitutional Treaty was unveiled to the public, the period immediate after the results of the referendum and until the publication of the Commission's reports on Romania and Bulgaria. Data was collected based on relevance sampling, i.e. selecting all textual units that contributed to the research. Although this is a non-probability technique, it allows the researcher to interpolate conclusions as general statement, as the texts are the entire population, and all textual units that do not possess the relevant information have been excluded (Krippendorff, 2004). Hence, the confidence interval for the quantitative results is 100% and the margin of error associated with the conclusions is zero. Although an unequal distribution of units per period is possible, this article examines all available relevant documents and articles within the timeframe, and therefore provides a fair representation of data and tendencies. The sampling units have been set as the distinct texts defined by physical distinctions, and the recording/coding units are set to be words as defined by syntactical distinctions, since they are qualified as the most reliable unit for written documents (Krippendorff, 2004). The article applies discourse and content analysis. Thus, the text is processed in two separate layers, one provided by the application of discourse analysis, one by content analysis. Hence, following identification of ideas in their general relation to the Eastern Enlargement and the Constitutional Treaty, I also considered the context in which discourses were produced, noting their evolution in time and identifying the most frequently used words and semantical constructions.

  1. Determinants of Support for European Integration. A Case for Public Discourse

    In the 1950s, the collective memory of war, destruction and devastation shared by the electorate across Europe and the six founding member states, the European political elites functioned upon the assumption that the public was largely supportive of a project aimed at preventing further conflicts. As a result, little attention was paid to the determinants of support for integration among the average voters. Ratifications of new treaties or introduction of new policies (i.e. euro, enlargement) which, with few exceptions where the national constitutions so require, rarely go directly in front of the electorate but are ratified through national parliaments. European elections have been characterised by absenteeism and lack of knowledge in EU related affairs (see for example Hayward, 1996; van der Eijk, Franklin, 1996; Blondel, Sinnott, Svensson, 1998; Hug, 2002; Steed, 2002; Lodge, 2005). Pro-European campaigns mix promises of better standard of living and calls for a European spirit.

    In time, the body of literature dedicated to identifying the determinants for support for European integration has increasingly grown and approaches vary. Those drawing on economic theory and rational choice sustain that individual support for European integration is determined by expectations of economic costs and benefits. By contrast, other approaches look at cultural influences, individual values and belief systems, domestic politics, party allegiance and incumbent popularity.

    Existing literature on costs and benefits of economic integration distinguishes between macro- and micro-level expectations. Although macro-economic studies argue that attitudes towards EU membership change according to economic performance as measured in terms of GDP growth, unemployment and inflation, empirical data do not support such claims (Eichenberg, Dalton 1993; Anderson, Kaltenhaler 1996). The volume of trade among EU members and net national returns from the EU budget have also been found to affect support for integration (Anderson, Reichert 1996; also Eichenberg, Dalton 1993). Micro-economic studies find that EU required reforms are not met with the same level of support across different regions and social strata. Positive attitudes also depend upon an individual's ability to adapt to and benefit from market liberalization (Gabel 1998a,b; Gabel, Palmer 1995; Anderson, Reichert 1996). These models use as proxies income, education, and gender for individual competitiveness. Attitudes towards the euro appeared to be positively influenced by both macro- and micro-economic expectations: on the one hand, the euro was expected to lower unemployment, curb inflation, and boost economic growth; on the other, the euro was seen as beneficial to personal savings, job security, and individual income (Van Everdingen, van Raaij 1998).

    Cultural oriented studies link support for European integration to individuals' belief and values systems. Although belief in post-materialist political values has been seen as determining support for international integration (Inglehart 1977), recent studies showed that these variables have no effect on evaluations of membership (Janssen 1991; Anderson, Reichert 1996; Gabel 1998a). While several studies report that opinions toward European integration correlate with partisan allegiance and social class (Shepherd 1975; Inglehart, Rabier, Reif 1991; Gallagher 1996; Hug, Sciarini 2000), others have noted the tendency of many voters to ignore the position of their parties often split over integration issues (Svensson 1984). Recent research has focused on incumbent popularity and voter assessment of government performance as a relevant...

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