In politics the art of communication has always played a critical role - never more so now that technology can compensate for the complexity of modern administration. This is a lesson particularly appropriate for the European Commission, whose decision-making processes often perplex ordinary citizens.
Ms Margot Wallstr÷m, the Environment Commissioner, whose visit to Ireland today was regrettably cancelled due to illness, has overcome this challenge in presenting successfully her brief to policymakers and citizens throughout the EU and the candidate states waiting to join it. She has visited most of them over the last two years, becoming one of the most active members of a talented Commission. She has developed a convincing case that environmental questions are now inherently international, such is the inter-dependence of today's world.
Climate change, environmental health, water pollution, chemicals and waste management are her main priorities, along with the issue of sustainable development. She makes the strong case that technical language can needlessly antagonise ordinary citizens. Thus sustainable development is best defined simply: "That we shouldn't send the bill to our children and grandchildren for the things we are doing". If more of her fellow commissioners were to follow suit fewer people would switch off from the benefits of European integration. Ms Wallstr÷m has encountered her fair share of the "blame Brussels" syndrome from Irish ministers and their departments, who have been slow to implement EU directives, occasionally blaming them for interfering with Ireland's cultural identity. She has also responded positively to Irish citizens complaining about not being consulted over development planning, and their annoyance about delayed implementation of water and waste directives.
This is the stuff of much modern politics. Multi-levelled politics, especially in the environmental field, is more liberating than restricting. Of no other policy sphere is this more true than that of cross-border nuclear pollution. The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, plans to raise the Sellafield issue with Ms Wallstr÷m, whose brief includes nuclear safety. He will seek to explore what avenues are open to Ireland under EU legislation to have the British Nuclear Fuels plant in Cumbria closed down. This would ensure her visit, when it does take place, gets a good hearing.