Wallström: French riots are ‘warning’ for EU

French riots signal that violence could be Europe's fate unless out of touch EU institutions reconnect with citizens, the European Commission warned on Thursday.

European Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström has been charged with selling Europe to EU citizens after European constitution rejections by French and Dutch voters.

Speaking to the EU’s Committee of the Regions, Wallström argued that French riots were a sign of things to come unless Europe’s political class woke up.

“Opinion polls show a continuing decline in people’s trust of politicians – whether national or European – and a growing gap between the world of politics and the world of people’s daily lives,” she said.

“If anyone should doubt that, just take a look at the streets of France and the violent scenes we have witnessed, night after night, these past three weeks.”

Wallström’s vivid comparison of riots to referendum rejections of the EU constitution is a deliberate attempt to shock Europe’s elites into action.

“This is not just a problem for France or for the mayors of big cities. Nor is it just a problem concerning immigrants. It is a warning to all European politicians,” she said.

The Swedish commissioner is fighting a culture war within the commission to tackle the EU’s bureaucratic and undemocratic mindset.

“We need to stop thinking of institutions as the centre of the universe, irradiating information and sending our messages to the citizens,” she told the COR.

“A political integration project such as the EU can only work if the people have a hand in ‘writing the script’.”

“EU citizens must be able to identify with the project and support it as something agreed by common consent – something of which they have ownership. This is what democracy means. Democracy is not a spectators’ sport.”

Wallström is enlisting the support of the COR regional, city and local government representatives in her bid to communicate the EU to Europeans.

“You members of the Committee of the Regions have a key role to play… You are ideally placed to set up local debates on local issues that have a European dimension and to channel the feedback from those debates to the commission and the other Brussels institutions,” she said.
 
“You are also ideally placed to channel information in the opposite direction – from Brussels to the people in your local area.”

Commission President José Manuel Barroso has signed a new COR-commission cooperation protocol with EU regions chief Peter Straub.

The new EU power pact will introduce new commission procedures to ensure legislation boosts the involvement of local and regional authorities in policy.

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