Finn fem fel...

"The T-shirt party up there have the text ‘Respect the “no”’. My idea of doing that includes knowing the concerns of the Irish people. It is understanding why they voted ‘no’. They have made their own interpretations but I think it is very important that the Irish Government, with the help of our Eurobarometer opinion polls, can better understand what the concerns are and whether we can do something about them.

Is that not the idea of democracy? That is the way forward – to understand their arguments, to work with the other Member States and also to get their respect for the problems that we can, hopefully, solve together. As we did after the ‘no’ vote in the French and Dutch referendums, we have already carried out a Eurobarometer survey, which I think will also help better to understand the challenges of any referendum. Carrying out a referendum has its upsides but also its downsides – or rather, from a democratic point of view, challenges. After the voters have been presented with such a complex wide text as a new international treaty, of course there is room for different interpretations of the results.

We need to understand better what the Irish said, what they are afraid of and what they hope for. I already understand from the preliminary results that this is not a general ‘no’ to Europe. It is also understanding and respecting their role in a European Union.

The upside of carrying out a referendum is that you also have to inform and communicate with citizens, with all the challenges that implies. I think that everybody can see that we also have to analyse what we can improve in terms of communication and information to citizens. I have always said that communication is a tool for democracy. This must be based on a right for citizens to know what goes on at European level, what is decided and how citizens can have a say. That work has to be further intensified and that is why also the Commission will continue with what we started a couple of years ago, called Plan ‘D’, as in Debate, Dialogue and Democracy. That will be based on the idea of having a citizens’ ownership of EU policies..."

EU:s propagandakommissionär Margot Wallström i Europaparlamentet i veckan.