El Libro Blanco sobre una Política Europea de Comunicación Diálogo social y descentralización en el caso español

Abstract

The White Paper on a European Communication Policy, launched by the European Commission in 2006, proposed two ideas: firstly, the building of a public sphere of social dialogue in which European citizens can participate in a bidirectional communication with the institutions and secondly, decentralization of the communication practices of the EU in order to adapt the communication process and messages to the territorial specificities. This article analyzes the contributions of the Spanish citizens, independent organizations of civil society and the Spanish regions during the period of consultation established by the Commission as the second stage of the White Paper. The article concludes the need for increasing the Spanish citizens' knowledge on the European institutions as a first step to build the European Public Sphere. The Commission should take into consideration the institutional framework of the Member States when dealing with communication and particularly in Spain, the regions should play an important role in the Commission's proposals.