Interview: Europe 'needs simple language' for elections[fr][de] 

Opstelten, who has been Rotterdam's mayor since 1999, says the European constitution was "too difficult" for citizens and "even CEOs" to understand, which is why the majority ended up voting 'no'. 

After the referendum fiasco, the mayor decided that citizens were best placed to state what the EU was all about. On behalf of the liberal group in the European Parliament (ALDE), he chaired a panel which produced a ten-point 'mission statement ' for the EU, based on contributions from citizens throughout Europe. 

One of the ten 'missions' was formulated by a 22-year-old Hungarian student, but the others were actually taken from suggestions by ALDE politicians. 

According to Opstelten, the group will use the mission statement in its campaign for the June 2009 European elections, including via modern communication channels like the Internet. 

Opstelten rejected suggestions that the initiative's credibility could be undermined by the fact that it comes from a political group, saying ALDE had invited the EU's Committee of the Regions (CoR) to join it. 

But other political groups in the CoR have asked to contribute, and work is now underway to adopt a cross-party mission statement in April 2009, ahead of the European elections in June. But this would be a Mission Statement for the Committee of the Regions, not for the EU as a whole, he pointed out. 

Moving on to electoral ambitions, Opstelten does not see any drawbacks of sending out a positive message with the mission statement. While populists often gain support with negative messages, playing on fears related to immigration or globalisation, offering a more positive perspective could also attract voters, he said. 

However, he recognised that in his country, security conditions as well as policies for the integration of immigrants have improved, in part thanks to populists such as Pim Fortuyn. Opstelten refrained from giving the Irish advice in view of a probable re-vote on the Lisbon Treaty on the grounds that he did not know much about the political situation there. But he recognised that a campaign in "normal language" was needed. 

To read the interview in full, please click here.