Press Watch Far-reaching developments are taking place in the European Union, which raise significant issues and are worthy of widespread public discussion. It is, therefore, worrying to note that in many cases, the British press prefers to highlight the trivial, at the expense of the substantive, issues. Even in the more serious publications, misleading assumptions about the European Union still abound.
Most newspapers refuse to publish a factual reply, even in the form of a letter.
With this in mind, we present here some recent examples of errors, together with short explanations of why they are wrong. This is the fifth of an occasional series which, as in the past, will be distributed to ministers, MPs, Whitehall departments, the Press Complaints Commission, other national organisations and newspapers themselves. The European Commission is not a campaigning body and no funds have been used in the UK to promote the euro, which is a matter for the Government alone. In particular, the Commission's Representation in the UK performs a political function which is non-partisan. It is not involved in propaganda or in campaigning in favour of particular European policies, nor in taking part in a domestic debate about the pros and cons of the European Union.