On Thursday 31 May, the Seminar entitled “The Role of the Mass Media in the Construction of Europe” was held in the Auditorium at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The Seminar was organised by the General Secretariat for External Affairs of the Basque Government, with the collaboration of the European Commission and the Basque Network of European Information (REVIE), and with the aim of bringing about open discussion between representatives of institutions, mass media, social organisations and citizenry in general, with regard to the role of the media in the construction of Europe.

The event was inaugurated after a speech by the Lehendakari (Basque President) Juan José Ibarretxe [es] who, in addition to assuring the audience that he “takes part in the European dream”, defended the role of the peoples and nations in Europe; he pointed out that "we do not deny the role of the states, but rather we claim the contribution of the ancient peoples, because we are the new allies for the 21st century in the construction of the European idea".

Among the speakers, in addition to the Lehendakari, the Organisation was able to count on the participation of another 17 personalities; including Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, who took part by means of a video message; Jeremy Rifkin, President of the ‘Foundation on Economic Trends’ and author of numerous books, including “The European Dream”; Daniel Innerarity, philosopher; Stefano Rolando, former Director of the Information Department of the Presidency for the Italian Council of Ministers, and Izaskun Bilbao, President of the Basque Parliament, who closed the event.

The Seminar was attended by some 250 persons, fundamentally from the institutional and university fields, as well as numerous professionals from the mass media.

The programme for the Seminar was organised around an inaugural keynote speech, made by Jeremy Rifkin, and 2 panels. The first panel, entitled “European Union communication policy”, analysed the way in which European institutions inform and communicate regarding their activities and projects. The second panel, “Civil society, press and public opinion in the future of the EU”, on its part, focused on the debate about how civil society sees the future of the Union and what role the media should play in communicating the European idea to society. la jornada asistieron unas 250 personas, fundamentalmente de los ámbitos institucional y universitario; así como numerosos profesionales de los medios de comunicación.

Moreover, within the framework of the Seminar, the Basque Government presented the results of an opinion poll carried out among Basque citizens about their perception of the European Union [es - eu] (pdf. 1,25 MB)

As a result of the Seminar, a conclusions document is to be drawn up, in which an attempt will be made to define a series of good practices to foment the role of the media in the task of communicating the European Union project to society. This document will be sent to the European Union institutions as the second contribution from the Basque Country to ‘Plan D (Democracy, Dialogue and Debate)’ and, in short, as a Basque contribution to the process of reflection on the future of Europe.

In fact, the Seminar was the continuation of a prior event, held in April 2006, entitle "Europe in the 21st Century: Values, Borders and European Citizens: A contribution from the Basque Country to 'Plan D' (Democracy, Dialogue and Debate)".

(Source: Basque Government - European Affairs)