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10/14/05

Guardian: EU moves on to Plan D to win trust

Guardian

EU moves on to Plan D to win trust

The EU has been the project of political elites and it needs radical change in order to become democratic, Margot Wallström, the European commission's vice-president, warned yesterday, adding that the union needed to reform its institutions dramatically to gain popular support.

"This has been a project for a small elite, a political elite. That has worked, until now," she said at the launch of the EC's communications strategy. "Has it ever been alive, European democracy? That is a very good question." The communications strategy, which has been dubbed Plan D for representing democracy, dialogue and debate, comes in response to surveys showing that public trust in the EU has fallen, from 50% in the autumn of 2004 to 44% this spring. "It's clear that to convince Europeans to the European idea, the institutions have to change," she said. "The institutions must lead by example in their ability to reform and to be more transparent and more efficient." She thought European governments appeared to be afraid of public opinion following the no votes in the Dutch and French EU constitution referendums in the spring. She also warned that the EU needed to transform itself economically, and said that 20 million unemployed people in the EU was a "totally unacceptable" figure.

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