Citizen Perceptions of The European Union: The Impact of the EU W ...

users, that is, citizens, think of the EU? Why should the communicators in the EU institutions care about having users come to the EUROPA Web site or about what they think of it?

The following chapters address these questions of relevance. The timeliness of this issue could not be more striking than in the current internal and external debates about the future of the EU. Not only can this need for renewed communication and interaction efforts between citizens and institutions be seen in the ‘No’ votes on the common constitution in 2005 in France and the Netherlands,² or some countries keeping their own currencies, but also in the rise of ‘Euro-criticism’ and nationalistic parties throughout Europe in the 1990s until around 2002.³ The most recent example of the unease and distance citizens feel with regard to the EU can be seen in the Irish ‘No’ to the Lisbon treaty that was conceived as the way ahead after the failure of the constitution referenda. As EU institutions work on facilitating living in a common market and an emerging common political sphere, the development of a common transnational public sphere in which citizens are engaged seems, at this point, rather unlikely (Cammaerts & van Audenhove, 2005)—even when taking into account the promises of the Internet. Currently, the main areas where talk of overlapping public sphere(s) might be feasible are shared criticism, such as discussions around the perceived democratic deficit of the Union (Trenz & Eder, 2004), or the public sphere and fan cultures developing around events like the Eurovision Song Contest, or the European Football Championships. Especially after the ‘Constitution for Europe’ was rejected and put on hold, EU institutions, and in particular Margot Wallström, who was appointed Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication in August 2004, and the people in the General Directorate for Communication (DG COMM, formerly DG PRESS) worked with renewed vigour to improve the way Europe was communicated to and how it communicated with its citizens.⁴ Obviously, when governmental institutions are removed from their publics they need to continually foster trust by enhancing public communication. With the rise of the Internet as a major element of daily routines, distributing and