England and the rest – the press coverage of Blair’s speech Germany, Spain, Denmark, and France: contextualising the speech

5.1.8. England and the rest – the press coverage of Blair’s speech

of the Danish rejection of the euro and the happenings in Belgrade.⁴⁰ But more significantly, the speech is related to the reform process of the current IGC and the ongoing debate on European finality.⁴¹ Regarding the IGC, the most troublesome issues are presented, and in a commentary by Felipe Gonzalez, the socialist politician and former head of government, the prospects for success are reviewed.⁴² In the context of the long-term debate Blair’s speech is related to preceding statements of Fischer, Chirac, Aznar,⁴³ and Prodi. In a leading article it is claimed that: “Blair’s proposals […] are primarily of interest because they come from a British responsible [politician]

who has not been ashamed of talking about the desire for a ‘European superpower’” (EP, 09/10/00).

There are a total of nine articles in the Danish sample (see figure 13), and two of these are leaders. The Danish coverage primarily relates Blair’s intervention to the IGC and the broader debate. Only one article does not mention this theme choosing instead to relate the speech to the events in Belgrade.⁴⁴ Other articles bring in issues such as the Warsaw-setting and the consequences of the Danish referendum alongside the theme of European debate.⁴⁵ In the dominant

contextualisation of the short- and long-term debate Blair’s proposals are compared to those of Fischer, Chirac, and Prodi, and the prospects for reaching agreement at Nice are pondered.⁴⁶ A prevalent concern is whether or not the British position is in the Danish interest.⁴⁷

Although there is disagreement as to whether Blair’s position is beneficial or

damaging to Denmark, the coverage conveys a common understanding of the proposal as being an adequate intervention into the European debate. As one leading article concludes: “In Warsaw Tony Blair passed the test that determines whether a top-politician is a true European: he did not oppose width and depth in the European co-operation. He rightly saw reforms and enlargement as two sides of the same issue. […] Even if Tony Blair does not have all the answers, at least he posed the right questions” (Pol 07/10/00).

The French sample consists of two commentaries and eight news pieces adding up to a total of ten articles (see figure 13). In the French coverage one article focuses on the relationship between Blair’s speech and the recently conducted Danish referendum.⁴⁸ Blair’s positioning of

40 EP 07/10/00A+B.

41 Exp 07/10/00, EP 09/10/00, Exp 11/10/00, EP 13/10/00.

42 EP 13/10/00.

43 The appearance of Aznar’s speech in the context of the coverage of Blair’s intervention indicates that the former utterance has not, after all, been inconsequential.

44 Pol 06/10/00.

45 Inf 07/10/00A+C, Inf 05/10/00.

46 Inf 05/10/00, Inf 07/10/00C, Pol 07/10/00A, Inf 12/10/00.

47 Inf 05/10/00, Inf 07/10/00A+B.

48 LM 10/10/00.

himself as the champion of enlargement, and the speech’s aptness to its immediate audience is mentioned a number of times.⁴⁹ The speech is also related to the upcoming IGC.⁵⁰ But the context of the broad European debate pervades the majority of the articles.⁵¹ In the context of European debate, Blair’s proposals are compared to the ideas put forward by Fischer, Chirac, Aznar and Prodi, and there is general satisfaction that the discussion of fundamental issues will lead to a continuation of the reform process beyond the current IGC.⁵² Moreover, it is lamented that France has not been more active in the ensuing debate.⁵³

England: now say it at home, Mr. Blair

The ten-day survey of the English newspapers’ coverage of Blair’s Warsaw-address resulted in a total of 39 articles (see figure 14); seven of these are commentaries and there are five leaders as well as five letters.

The English coverage includes all the contextualisations mentioned above and also has several unique features. The coverage can be divided into four groups: three of these are established

49 Lib 07/10/00, LM 07/10/00, LF 07/10/00, LM 09/10/00.

50 LF 09/10/00, LM 13/10/00.

51 Lib 04/10/00, Lib 05/10/00, Lib 07/10/00, LF 07/10/00, LM 09/10/00, LF 09/10/00, Lib 11/10/00, LM 13/10/00.

52 There is but one exception to the general approval of fundamental discussions and further reform: “If the Union’s latent institutional crisis bursts forth at Nice, it is not certain that a majority of the member states will be inclined to engage rapidly in a new round of negotiations. The European construction will then enter into a period of stagnation, road to regression, because the fifteen have made the mistake of responding to the recurrent question: where does one find the point of equilibrium between an association of nation-states conserving the essence of their free will and a community structure of federal vocation?” (LM 13/10/00).

53 Lib 05/10/00 and 11/10/00.

Figure 14: The English coverage of Blair's speech

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

04.10 05.10 06.10 07.10 08.10 09.10 10.10 11.10 12.10 13.10 Date of publication

No. of articles FT

Ind Guar Tim

according to temporal developments, and the fourth group, consisting of leaders, commentaries, and letters, runs parallel to the three others (see table 3).

Times Independent Guardian Financial

Times

Total articles in group

Early stage 5 4 0 3 12

Middle stage 2 0 1 1 4

Late stage 3 1 1 0 5

Evaluative articles

1 4 4 8 17 Total articles

in paper

11 9 7 12 Table 3: The four groups of the English coverage

The first group of articles focuses primarily on Blair’s speech as a contribution to the ongoing debate on the future of Europe and also includes the factors of the pending enlargement, the Danish referendum, and the events in Serbia. The gist of this first group may be summed up as follows:

When the Prime Minister originally decided to offer a speech on the future of the European Union […] it was to be a response to the debate opened by Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, and then by Jacques Chirac earlier this year. The referendum in Denmark and the revolution in Serbia have transformed the context in which Tony Blair delivered his address (Tim 07/10/00A).

In the second group, covering the survey period’s intermediate phase, the coverage attends to different reactions to the speech. The recorded reactions come primarily from the British Conservatives, “…who said that it [the speech] would undermine Britain as a nation state” (FT 07/10/00A). However, the guarded reaction of the pro-European Liberal Democrats is also noted.

And the positive reception of the speech on the continent, especially in the Commission, is present in several accounts.⁵⁴

The articles of the final temporally established group primarily place the speech in the context of the Biarritz Council and the short-term debate on the reforms that are to be settled at Nice. Here, the main issue is the negotiating position Blair has created in the speech, and the possible outcomes of the meetings are considered. Yet there is also a general understanding that the meeting at Biarritz “…will frame the terms of debate for the future of the European Union” (Tim 13/10/00A), and thus the immediate negotiations are tied in with the broader debate.

54 Guar 07/10/00A, FT 07/10/00A, Tim 08/10/00.

The fourth group of texts, the comments published throughout the surveyed period, contains many of the same themes as the other three groups, but distinguishes itself by taking an explicit stance on the issues that are pondered. Here the content and the timing of the speech are discussed and evaluated. The content of Blair’s proposal is the primary topic of the letters, and evaluations of specific elements⁵⁵ as well as of the speech’s general direction⁵⁶ are offered. The commentaries tend to focus more on the process and strategic aspects of the debate than on the particular content of Blair’s intervention. Some commentators deny the need for further discussion of general ideas,⁵⁷ but most welcome the debate as such and find that Blair’s intervention is particularly fortuitous.⁵⁸ Also, the commentators repeatedly emphasise the need for a national British debate, inviting Blair to restate his European position in a British setting.⁵⁹