Who Speaks European?

(and why no one likes the EU)

Hello Everyone,

Well, what a time to have stepped away from daily news. It really does feel relentlessly depressing right now, both the stories that are getting lots of air time like Ukraine, and those that are getting nowhere near the attention they should be, like Afghanistan.

I’ll always focus on my core issues ( I’m planning some original content for you to coincide with Refugee Week next month) but some balance helps in troubled times, so expect a lighter tone too in some of the future newsletters and a look at a few cultural topics - the kinds of things I notice as a ‘foreigner’ and spend ages wondering if anyone else is noticing too.

But for now, here’s a quick one about… the European Union.

Please don’t stop reading.

Believe me, I know that in news terms, the European Union is what is commonly referred to as a ‘turn-off’. But that’s the whole point of this post.

Personally, I’ve always had a strange obsession with Brussels and never go too long without reading Politico Europe. (they are refreshingly witty considering the subject matter). But I appreciate that’s not a sentiment that is widely shared. Dull but Worthy is how a former news editor once described EU coverage.

So why does the EU seem so much more boring and distant than national governments? And why do so many Europeans feel it doesn’t impact them?

On Thursday, I spoke about it with someone who knows the EU better than most - Federica Mogherini, the former EU Foreign Policy chief between 2014 to 2019.

We were both speaking at a round table discussion at Surrey University, where she received an Honorary Degree and I’ve started as Professor in Practice within their Centre for Britain and Europe (I’m hoping to do some research on EU Citizens in the UK there, I’ll fill you in on that soon).

The theme of the discussion was ‘Europe’s Place in a Challenged World’ so unsurprisingly we didn’t quite crack it in one hour. But we did, among other things, hit on the issue above: the disengagement that many Europeans feel towards the EU, which leads millions of people to not be aware of all the EU does for them.

Federica Mogherini and I came up with two different reasons as to why Europeans felt divorced from the EU:

Mogherini was Italian Foreign Minister before becoming EU Foreign Policy chief, and she shared her insight into the dynamic between EU and national politics.

"There’s no such thing as ‘Brussels’. The key decisions are taken by the European Council which is made up of the Prime Ministers from all the member states. So when a decision is taken at EU level that national populations like, the Prime Ministers sell it to each state as a decision that was taken by their national leaders. When it’s an unpopular decision, it was taken because ‘Brussels’ forced their hand.”

Basically if it’s good, the national governments take the credit. If it’s bad, they blame the EU.

Makes perfect sense when you see it like that and it would explain who so many Europeans feel the EU does nothing for them.

My analysis on the other hand was based on a combination of two of my personal obsessions: Language and News.

What does the Middle East, for all of its sectarian divisions, conflicts and disunity, have that Europe doesn’t?

A common language.

Sure, there’s different variants of Arabic spoken in various countries, but Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic is widely understood by most.

That’s why Al Jazeera’s arabic language news channel is able to broadcast to the whole Arab world and attract tens of millions of viewers. Al Jazeera can shape opinion in the Middle East.

Comparing Al Jazeera to Euronews, the closest thing Europe has to a continent-wide channel, is laughable.

Forgive me if that sounds uncharitable. I know a lot of great journalists who work at Euronews, and the network does at least try to bridge the gap between nations by having several different services in the major European languages.

But those services run pre-packaged reports without presenters or proper live programmes. It’s telling that when Euronews finally launched a presenter-led news channel a few years ago, it chose English as the language to broadcast in. An obvious choice perhaps, but I doubt it’s had much of a political impact anywhere in Europe. English may be the global language but it’s not the European language.

So while Europe has a political union, it is one without a unifying language. Which means the various national debates continue within their own linguistic bubbles, and there is no real channel (literally and figuratively) through which Europeans can come together and discuss the issues that affect the continent and themselves.

Is it any surprise they feel disconnected?

The challenges of journalism for second-language English speakers, and the impact of English on the global narrative will be among my core themes, so please share this newsletter with journalists, linguists or anyone you think would be interested. Thank you, and see you next time.