If the politicians in the Brussels "bubble" were really honest, most speeches would start with "Dear Members, Dear Stakeholders...get ready to sleep".
On the day when the head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, gave her last speech of the mandate on the state of the EU in the European Parliament, the Brussels portal Politiko asks why senior EU officials are causing yawns instead of applause.
As he states, the first challenge for any speechwriter in the EU is how to get the audience interested in policies they don't feel close to.
Another challenge called "intermediaries" was pointed out by Dan Sobovic, who wrote speeches for European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič for five years.
"European politicians will never be able to achieve intimacy because at the national level there are other mediators, such as journalists or influencers, who will interpret Brussels," said the Hungarian-Swiss-Israeli communications expert.
According to him, the remedy for this is to tell a personal story, "a mixture of political line and personality" of the speaker.
Rene Brukmellen, who has written speeches for Dutch politicians and CEOs for a quarter of a century, described speaking in the EU "bubble" as soporific, adding that "telling a story" is a way to make a very abstract topic more concrete, more palatable.
She also said that opposition to populist rhetoric is only possible if it is clear what the EU actually does for people.
Speaking about von der Leyen's speech, former speechwriter for former Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Vincent Stuer pointed to the concept of narrative used by the head of the European Commission.
Stuer, who now works for the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, tells Politko that in addition to the challenge of how to interest the audience in policies that are not close to them, the challenge is also the question of whose story it is - the speaker's or the speech writer's.
"Less is more," he said, explaining that when the Commission's directorates are allowed to contribute to the speech, "the final product turns into a 'Christmas tree.'
Helene Banner, who in 2019 wrote speeches for the two presidents of the Commission (Jean-Claude) Juncker and Urusla von der Leyen, says that it is important to know well the speaker for whom you are writing - how he thinks, what he reads, what he enjoys.
One of the distracting factors is that every speech is translated into 24 official EU languages and a part of the audience will always misunderstand something.
In addition to possible losses in translation, each speech must also be flexible enough to enter the separate national political contexts of the 27 member states.
"The art is to be personal, to be mission-driven, to be connected," said Banner, who teaches political communications at the College of Europe in Bruges.
"And to have the courage to say less," she said.
When it comes to Ursula von der Leyen, Bruckmelen thinks she needs "a little more emotion, a little more passion" in her speeches. "But she's German, so it's difficult," she added.
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