EMMA BONINO the European Union's fisheries commissioner, has attacked Europe's senior figures for refusing to court public opinion and continuing to negotiate in secret. Unless Brussels faces up to the reality that support for the EU is poor. claimed the outspoken Italian, it risks further alienating a public that is growing ever more sceptical of the European project.

Bonino comment were made in a paper published at a conference in the Netherlands, where Commission officials, politicians and academics met to debate the question: How much popular support is there for the EU?

"A sense of discouragement and helplessness has become widespread across Europe," Bonino said. "This has led to increasing mistrust of Europe's governments and institutions. Far from seizing the public imagination, the intergovernmental conference seems to elicit little interest, even among those directly involved. Governments are making it worse by repeating the Maastricht mistake of negotiating beheld closed doors." Boning claims were vigorously denied by Commission officials speaking at the conference, organised by the Philip Morris Institute for public Policy Research. Nikolaus van der Pas, commission President Jacques Santer's spokesman, said: "I believe there is not a single institution in the world which is as transparent as the European ones." He "acknowledged, however, that the decision making process was "slow and diffuse", and that Europe's politicians were failing to get their message across. mainly because the public do not understand who is doing what and why.

"The European power base is Brussels. But what is Brussels ? It can be the European Parliament, the Commission, the Court of Human Rights or the Council of Ministers. Communication about Europe is a hopeless exercise and certain to go wrong," he said.

Unlike many of his Brussels colleagues, however, ' Van der Pas resisted the temptation to blame the press for the confusion. 'The press follows the news it doesn't invent it," he said. "We should look at our own shortcomings first. We trave to make Europe a good story - then it will be reported."

The quality of information, so often bogged down in impenetrable technocratic jargon, came in for attack from several speakers. While Spyros Pappas, the Commission's new director general for information, outlined Santer's mission to reach the European citizen and initiatives such as the Citizens First campaign and the Europa world wide web site, Dutch MEP Maarten Von Traa interjected: "You don' t need to sell a good procluct, only a bad one".

The problem was not a lack of information nor even a lack of openness, said Von Traa, it was a lack of interest. "How do you link the lnstitutions with the life of the people?" he asked. People are always saying we should bring Europe closer to the people. But that is a ridiculous phrase. The people are Europe. What we need is to bring Europe closer to reality."

Von Traa proposed a non profit-making television and radio station. "Unlike the US's Radio Free Europe, it would not be propagandist, but we would pay the broadcasters a lot of money to make Europe more interesting," he said.

Like Bonino, Von Traa argued that Europeans' lack of interest and disaffection was caused in part by a sense of powerlessness because the institutions failed to consult them on matters they really care about, such as jobs.

After Echart Cans, director of the general secretariat of the Council of Ministers, dismissed proposals to allow the press into Council meetings, Von Traa said: "You are part of the problem. You sit there making decision without " any accountability to the public."

MEPs, said Von Traa, should be given the right to question ministers directly.

But Culltz replied: "Do you really think that if Council meetings were conducted in the open, decisions could be reached?"

Cuntz came in for further attack when he rejected the idea of a Europe-wide referendum on reform of the Maastricht treaty. Dutch MEP Laurens Jan Brinkhorst pointed out that recent polls show that Europe's citizens overwhelmingly believe they should trave the final say over the future of the EU

Despite the Commission's insistence that it is redoubling its efforts to bridge the gap between Brussels and citizens, most delegates agreed it was doing too little. Some referred to The European's Mori poll of MEPs last week to show that the positive message was not getting through.