A bold statement. Perhaps, but supported by facts. Voter turnout in European elections is among the lowest in Europe. In Slovenia, it hovers around 28 percent, in 2014 it was even only 24.55 percent, while the European average is over 45 percent, and well over 50 percent in the old member states. Why is this so? Why are European issues of no interest to even a third of eligible voters, and how can this be changed?

‍

‍

The blame is, of course, shared. Not only politicians, but also the media fail to spark interest in European issues. Despite politicians' efforts to address voters with European questions, media coverage remains inadequate. How often do European issues appear on TV screens, how many programs do we have about foreign policy, how many correspondents are left abroad? And why is even our national broadcaster shrinking its correspondent network and sending an excellent correspondent back to Ljubljana? Is one RTV correspondent from the EU capital really enough? However, it is still worth mentioning the progress of commercial TV, which now shares a correspondent with the only newspaper that still has a correspondent network.

‍

Low trust in institutions and poor knowledge of how the EU operates are often emphasized, but the fact is that this is mainly due to poor media coverage of European affairs and world politics. And the circle is complete. How can people be interested in complex European issues if there are almost no reports about them? Except once every five years, as elections approach, when we still keep revolving around MEP salaries, claiming how exorbitantly high they are. Of course, we always forget to mention that the salaries of all MEPs are the same. Why should ours be less than a Croatian's, Italian's, or Hungarian's?

‍

No wonder voters lose interest when they hear that an MEP earns millions in five years, while failing to mention that this amount also includes all office expenses and all employees, on average 5 assistants, working for the MEP in Ljubljana, Brussels, and Strasbourg. An MEP's salary is around 7000 euros net, as Slovenians, unlike most, are also taxed at home. A decent salary, no doubt, but again not so high that it should be reported so pompously every five years? After all, they have high living expenses, as they cover the rent for an apartment and a hotel in Strasbourg once a month themselves. But because nobody reports on their work, it is logical for the public to only envision their monthly earnings.

‍

Low trust in institutions and poor knowledge of how the EU operates are often emphasized, but the fact is that this is mainly due to poor media coverage of European affairs and world politics.

‍

And how can people trust European institutions when even domestic politics and bureaucracy often blame Brussels, especially when it comes to implementing more "troublesome" directives? And even here, we're special - Slovenians either simplify things or further complicate them. Let me just remind you of the GDPR directive, which we couldn't implement into national legislation, even though we had several years to do so. Therefore, the binding provisions were applied directly, the details remained unresolved, and as a result, it caused more problems than benefits for citizens and the economy. On the other hand, there is the delayed transposition of the delegated tobacco directive, as we have thoroughly complicated it, even though it only concerns the prohibition of using flavors in heated tobacco products. We would include everything else, regardless of the fact that a new comprehensive tobacco legislation is already being developed at the EU level. There are countless examples of this kind. For example, the European Commission adopts a certain directive, sets minimum and maximum parameters, and we usually just translate it, adhere to the strictest conditions, and then blame the EU. Because it's the easiest way, instead of finding a middle ground that would be most suitable for our environment.

‍

Will this year be different? Will we finally, at least in the campaign and in pre-election debates, discuss European issues? Will we comprehensively address the green transition and climate change? Will we talk about what kind of world we want to live in, will we say no to demagogy, euroscepticism, and radical populists who are already marching heavily across Europe? Have we forgotten why the European Union was created in the first place? Have we forgotten that it is actually a project of peace that has connected the European nations of the bloodiest continent of the 20th century? Today we live in peace, in the most developed part of the world. But none of this is so obvious, if we just look east towards Russia and Ukraine, and south towards Gaza.

‍

Will we finally care?

‍

You might also want to read a column "Curse of Value: When Creating Alone Isn't Enough" that dr. Denis Mancevič wrote for newspaper Večer.