We Need an EU With a Heart, a Social Conscience, and Courage

Abstract

Prospects for much-needed partnership between the 15 old European Union (EU) member states and the 10 new member states in the area of media policy and regulation may be hampered by potential conflicts between national interests and EU regulations; preoccupation in the new member states with domestic issues of media policy and politics; and differences of media policy goals between new countries and other EU members; and indeed different understandings and definitions of the media in EU policy (treated mostly as "money-making machines") and the new members (in which the media are mostly perceived as "meaning-making machines"). If integration is to be successful and partnership is to be effective, both sides need to change. The new members can go through the motions of involvement in the EU audiovisual policy, or they can introduce new ideas and join forcefully and without inhibitions in the already ongoing debate about what sort of an organization it should be. For that, they need an EU with a heart, a social conscience, and courage-the courage of its convictions and principles.