According to the latest Eurobarometer, 54% of Dutch people say they no longer trust Europe. As Euroscepticism gains ground, what role is being played by the press? We asked journalists, a sociologist and an economist. Marijn Jongsma is a journalist, a former Brussels correspondent. Now based in Holland, he works for the Financieele Dagblad in Amsterdam, a daily economics newspaper. A few hours before the issue is put to bed, the layout is being refined. The news about Europe has a good place in the pages of the paper, a fairly recent phenomenon. The whole European coverage has increased enormously. European news used to be on the back pages of every newspaper. Plans from the European Commission or from the European Parliament were not popular and not many readers were really interested. But now the whole European crisis and the summits about how to solve this crisis are on the front pages of every newspaper. The latest surveys show that 54% of Dutch people no longer trust the EU. But Marijn feels that the Netherlands could not manage without Europe, a view which is apparently being spread by the press. I haven't read one newspaper or magazine which is campaigning for the Netherlands to leave the euro. I think everybody who writes about economics or politics knows that our country is very much dependent on trade and on Europe. And we can't afford to step out of it. We go to Rotterdam to meet the chairman of the city's international press centre. But he hasn't given up his journalist's hat. The media have a more educational than partisan role in covering the crisis. There is not very much positive news coming from Brussels. I think Dutch media... You can't blame them for feeding scepticism, I think. We're trying to explain the crisis and follow the developments in the crisis as objectively as possible. I think Dutch media are very pro-Europe. So are the media pro-European? We find a voice of disagreement from this Eurosceptic economist. Are you blacklisted as a Eurosceptic or do you have space to express yourself in the press? As a Eurosceptic you get blacklisted, you are kept out of all kinds of positions. You are a difficult person to handle. If I was living in the United Kingdom or Sweden, I would be part of the establishment. No problems, no issues. But here in the Netherlands you have a hard time. You are nearly as suspect as if you were a populist or a nationalist, in the narrow sense. The distrust of the Dutch people for the EU came to light in 2005, the year of the rejection in a referendum of the European constitution. That distrust re-emerged with the economic crisis affecting Europe. Newspapers waste no chance to criticise the southern countries, judged to be lax. Here, Europe is compared to a prostitute wearing boots in the image of Italy. But for this researcher at Leiden University there is a nuance. The Dutch people aren't Eurosceptic. That means they're in favour of further European integration if it would serve national interest. But they say, 'Why not give some EU competences back to the national states if that would serve our national interest better?' So the Dutch people are apparently Euro-pragmatic, a majority trend in the Dutch political parties. Only the Party for Freedom focused its electoral campaign against Europe in the latest elections in the country.
EuroparlTV video ID: 301e0b72-0912-465a-9f42-a0cc0106e5dd
Commentaires