Eurocommissaris Antonio Tajani: 'Media heeft Europeanisering gemist' (en)

“The era of globalisation's first great crisis is strengthening the Union' that is Europe, affirms the President of the Spanish Government

On Friday, the President of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero i, urged the media to contribute to the creation of a 'truly European public opinion'

At the opening session of a European media meeting on 'new challenges' held at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid, Mr Zapatero asserted that 'the challenge facing our media...is not only technological...but also European...Europe is moving forwards and needs a truly European public opinion to accompany it on its journey'.”.

'Europe is moving forwards,' he argued, 'because it has just taken an important step forward at institutional level, in the form of the Lisbon Treaty…and because the crisis is forcing it to move forward'. 'The crisis, the first posed by the era of globalisation', has produced a 'beneficial side effect', said the President of the Government, in that 'it is strengthening the Union' that is Europe.

Reflecting Zapatero's sentiments, the Vice-President of the European Commission and Industry Commissioner, Antonio Tajani i, speaking in Spanish, expressed disappointment that Europeans' increasing domination of foreign languages was not reflected in increased readership of foreign media sources, whereupon he then went on to criticise media companies for not following the example of integration set by other sectors.

'The journalism world has missed the train of Europeanisation', said Mr Tajani, who lamented that while, on the one hand, an increasing number of issues are dealt with at European level, 'the news continues to be quite slanted towards national interests'.

In Mr Zapatero's opinion, the challenge facing the media can be summed up in one sentence: 'It must continue to serve as an effective bulwark of freely formed, informed and reflective public opinion, in the face of any and all abuses and usurpations of power'.

The President acknowledged, nevertheless, that the media world is undergoing 'a revolution which, in large measure, is obliging it to reinvent itself, given the impact which information technologies are having on the very substance of media models'.

With regard to the public,' he added, 'the passive readers, listeners and viewers of yore have given way to a hyperactive generation of digital youth'.

The President believes that media survival in this environment must not preclude values such as 'journalistic rigour and excellence'.

He also insisted that media should contribute to the 'projection of the European Union as such on the world stage'.

Before concluding, he mentioned the EU's new Digital Agenda which, amongst other things, envisages the creation of an integrated digital market.

'The Spanish Presidency,' he said, 'is also exploring how to make headway with regard to one of the most complex issues posed by the contemporary world of communication: how to protect copywrite without compromising universal access to knowledge and information.'

In closing, he said that 'we will witness neither the end of the media nor of quality journalism, but rather their transformation in a world which is globalised, interdependent and multipolar.'