LA Point of Sale

www.euronews.com In this edition of U-talk, Jacqueline from the Netherlands asks: “Because of all the issues that are out there now: the euro is one of them, immigration is another, it seems that all the blame and negative criticisms basically falls on Europe and the European process. I think it’s a real shame and I would like to know why it seems that nobody is able to do a better job at marketing what Europe has achieved in a better way?” Grégory Vanel, Professor at the European Advanced Institute of Management, Lyon responds: “Hello Jacqueline, it’s true that the institutions of the European Union have found it difficult to publicise the success the EU has had, beyond the traditional peaceful relations between France and Germany. I mean, think about the Airbus, food self-sufficiency, the Erasmus program with its university cooperation; so this isn’t a new problem, in fact it’s linked, in my view, to a number of things that are very difficult to resolve. “In particular, we have huge institutional complexities: it’s very difficult for a layperson to navigate between European Parliament, the European Commission, the EU Council and European Council. “Then there is a democratic deficit that’s been growing since the failure of the proposed European Constitutional Treaty in 2005 and that raises a number of problems, particularly in countries like France or Hungary for example, where you have extremely powerful sovereigntist movements. “Moreover, the EU sometimes suffers …