Newsweek: Inside Europe’s Sausage Factory - by William Underhill
Inside Europe’s Sausage Factory - by William Underhill
As Günter Verheugen, an EU Commission vice president, once put it, "There is a public perception of the EU as 'Nessie from Brussels,' a bureaucratic monster with nothing better to do than chop off every difference and blend it into a European soup." To counter this, the EU is trying to buff its image. Perks have been trimmed; the three-hour lunch is passing into Brussels folk memory. Now the talk in official circles is of "the three D's"—Democracy, Debate and Dialogue. In practice, that means better communication. The latest major competition for new bureaucrats was intended for media and communications specialists who could spread the message of a new citizen-friendly EU. A new booklet, heaped high in the EU's Brussels information center, sets out EU achievements over the past 50 years, including the creation of the euro and an emissions trading scheme.
Labels: EU, European Parliament
