Essential Steps for the European Union after the “No” Votes in France, the Netherlands & Ireland. CEPS Policy Briefs No. 166, 26 August 2008.

This Policy Brief outlines a number of steps that need to be taken to make the EU more comprehensible and acceptable to all its peoples – and not only the peoples of France, the Netherlands and Ireland. In the authors’ view, among these steps, three in particular are indispensable: Council discussions must be made public, Commissioners must make a much greater effort to explain EU policies, and one Commissioner for each member state must be permanently assured. In combination, these measures will hopefully address the widespread mistrust that has prevented the EU from having the support it needs to move ahead. The authors are both former senior officials of the EU. John Temple Lang is a lawyer with Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP, Brussels and London; Professor, Trinity College, Dublin; and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Oxford. Eamonn Gallagher is former Director General in the European Commission and former EC Ambassador to the United Nations, New York