Here in Brussels, the capital of the European world, 11 U.S. journalism graduate students are being hosted by the European Commission for week long conferences with European Union and NATO officials. The purpose of the press visit is to teach a new generation of journalists how to cover Europe for an American audience. It is clear that coverage problems of the EU are immense; most Europeans fail to understand the system, making it even more difficult to relate issues across the Atlantic.
Two of us hail from USC, with other graduates traversing from Northwest, Berkeley, Texas, Maryland and Missouri. On Monday, Research Fellow Sebastian Kurpas of the Center for European Policy Studies explained the political effects of an under-covered EU, including the difficulty of European policy makers to pass new legislation. Most notably, the recent Treaty of Lisbon—which was rejected by Ireland in June 2008 because the content was unclear to the general population (warranting campaign slogans such as: “If you don’t know, vote no”). Kurpas explained that a strong media presence is necessary in Brussels if convoluted political legislation is going to be translated to ground level.
But this is part of a much larger problem. Europeans across the continent view the EU as an elite and disconnected entity—not an overarching system of unity. The fundamental paradox at the heart of the system is a difficult one to grasp: maintaining nationalistic pride and conservative values while promoting the pooling of sovereign power and a shared European community. In practice, this means countries consult with the EU before making big decisions, and the recent financial mess proves that Europeans have not yet achieved this level of oneness. Rather than look for a continent-wide solution to the economy’s downturn, such as a European financial fund —a shared “pot” of emergency money to bail out banks across EU member countries, the sentiment has been “Every man for himself.” The UK began nationalizing banks, Germany pulled a surprise card, Ireland announced that it would guarantee all bank accounts, and everyone started clambering in different directions hoping to save themselves.
