Samenvatting

Communication on Europe was never a priority in the Netherlands, until it became clear in 2005 that the Dutch people did not support the European Constitution. When on 12 June 2007 the Irish people voted against the Lisbon Treaty, the renewed constitutional treaty, one could speak of a consistency in a no-vote with referenda against this treaty. If this is the case, the question arises who should provide the people with enough information to be able to cast a well informed vote; should this be the task of the member state government or of the executive organ of the European Union: the European Commission? In order to answer this question, different reasons will be examined.
All parties seem to agree that it is not enough to only provide information. The Dutch politicians have to acknowledge that the Netherlands is dependent on the European Union, and will not accuse Europe when the Netherlands have made a mistake. This rule also applies on positive developments; the politicians should rightfully give credits to the European Union, when their policy has a positive effect. If this were to take place, the public opinion would probably change significantly.
Another change which is important is creating a solid basis of knowledge for the youth of the European Union; to create a meaningful debate as regards content. Education is the key word. The Europe Fund will have a sufficient budget to support a number of large and small projects with an emphasis on comprehending Europe.
In order for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission to cooperate, different forms of cooperation are known, being a management partnership, a strategic partnership and a Memorandum of Understanding. In the Netherlands only a Memorandum of Understanding is used, whereupon both organizations meet twice a month to divide tasks and seek for cooperation. The highest form of cooperation, the management partnership, would not be possible in the Netherlands since the people and House of Parliament would not tolerate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs using Commissions’ money. In cooperation with the European Commission and other partners projects like “EU Back to School” are initiated. As is found before, the Dutch population want to get information from their own government, and secondly from the European Commission. Cooperation between both organizations could be a good solution. The Commission can support with know-how and manpower and co-organize projects informing people on the workings of the European Union. However, communicating Europe to the Dutch population is a task of the member state government.