EU treaty campaign blighted by 'poor' communication policy

Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon treaty represents a failure of the EU’s communication policy, a conference in Brussels was told.

Alan Dukes, former leader of the Fine Gael party in Ireland, said on Wednesday that those campaigning for a no vote in the country had run a "much more effective" campaign.

He said, “The no campaign had better slogans which were a lot easier to understand than the yes campaigners.

"They came up with good sound bites in the campaign which, in modern-day campaigning, clearly count for more than mere eloquent arguments.

"The European commission has to accept some responsibility, too, because of the often opaque language it uses in trying to improve communications between the EU institutions and the citizens. Even its own communication on this issue is hard to understand.

"This overall failure to communicate the message of what the treaty is about ultimately proved very costly," said Dukes, a former director of the Irish Institute of European Affairs.

His comments were echoed by German Socialist MEP Jo Leinen, who said the EU had to realise that ‘old-style’ means of communication were insufficient.

"There has to be a two-way, not one-way, dialogue with citizens and that task should fall to political parties as well as the EU institutions.

"I am calling on the commission, in particular, to show more leadership on this issue as was the case during the Jacques Delors administrations. It has got to be less shy about communicating its message about the treaty."

Both were keynote speakers at the event, organised by the European Policy Centre, to discuss the fallout from the Irish vote.

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