I just realized that my previous post was MountEUlympus post no. 100. After two and a half years of writing about the EU, this blog is still here, and it is here to stay for a while. Just a few musings about EU blogging before I turn back to proper content in my next post.
It is a rewarding experience to blog about European affairs. The last 30 months in blogging have seen me challenged by Prof. Andrew Moravcsik, reprinted in the newspaper New Europe (New Europe pdf unavailable), responded to by development economist Ha Joon Chang, participate in the Th!nk about it 2 blogging competition on climate change, publish a bachelor thesis on the European blogosphere, become a co-editor of Bloggingportal.eu, discover the workings of the Council of Ministers, cover the EPP Summit and many other experiences. Most of all, however, blogging has put me into an international community in which new ideas are put forward and debated every day and thereby significantly increased my knowledge of European affairs.
As I said, it is a rewarding experience to be a blogger and I can only encourage every citizen reading this post to think about starting his or her own blog. Given that European politics are rarely debated in national public spheres, European debates frequently develop in the blogosphere from where they are sometimes upscaled to national media. Even though the European blogosphere might sometimes appear a little like the electronic version of the Brussel bubble, participation is open to everybody and new entrants are welcomed and listened to. Maybe you will be next?
Showing posts with label Citizens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Citizens. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Friday, July 8, 2011
Respect. Responsibility. Representation.
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| CC BY-NC heraldpost |
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| CC BY badkleinkirchheim |
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| CC BY ME-Arbeitgeber |
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| CC BY-NC-SA dolarz |
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| CC BY-NC hockeyshooter |
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| CC BY-NC-ND European Parliament |
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The Hungarian Presidency's legacy: Bloggers allowed in the Council
Today is the final day of the Hungarian EU Presidency. From tomorrow, Poland will set the agenda and organize Council meetings for the remainder of 2011.
It is not my place to judge the overall performance of the Hungarian Presidency, but in one aspect it deserves a lot of praise. It was the first Presidency to allow bloggers into the Council meetings. Several times, bloggers Ronny Patz, Europasionaria and Litterbasket (Joe Litobarski) have reported directly from the Council, and in a handful of meetings with Brussels-based bloggers, the Presidency has made the inner workings of the Council more transparent (see a comprehensive blogtour by Mathew Lowry here).
Although it would seem a basic principle of democracy to let citizens attend a Council and ask questions to their politicians, earlier attempts at transparency achieved one thing most of all: it allowed lobbyists to monopolize the floor. With social media taking a more important place in the European policy debate, the Council is trying to give a greater space to European bloggers. In future, the Council's deliberations go, citizen bloggers should be allowed to request access to Council meetings, but it has to be safeguarded that they don't wear a lobbyist's hat. Much is still under negotiation, but after the Hungarian Presidency paved the way, hopes are high that bloggers could more regularly report from the Council.
We hope the Polish Presidency will be prepared to continue the work started by its predecessor. And we are highly thankful for the efforts of Gergely Polner and Hajdú Márton who devoted time and energy to European social media during the HU Presidency.
Update (19/07/2011): See coloredopinions for an interesting discussion on Blogging as a Wheat and Chessboard Problem
It is not my place to judge the overall performance of the Hungarian Presidency, but in one aspect it deserves a lot of praise. It was the first Presidency to allow bloggers into the Council meetings. Several times, bloggers Ronny Patz, Europasionaria and Litterbasket (Joe Litobarski) have reported directly from the Council, and in a handful of meetings with Brussels-based bloggers, the Presidency has made the inner workings of the Council more transparent (see a comprehensive blogtour by Mathew Lowry here).
Although it would seem a basic principle of democracy to let citizens attend a Council and ask questions to their politicians, earlier attempts at transparency achieved one thing most of all: it allowed lobbyists to monopolize the floor. With social media taking a more important place in the European policy debate, the Council is trying to give a greater space to European bloggers. In future, the Council's deliberations go, citizen bloggers should be allowed to request access to Council meetings, but it has to be safeguarded that they don't wear a lobbyist's hat. Much is still under negotiation, but after the Hungarian Presidency paved the way, hopes are high that bloggers could more regularly report from the Council.
We hope the Polish Presidency will be prepared to continue the work started by its predecessor. And we are highly thankful for the efforts of Gergely Polner and Hajdú Márton who devoted time and energy to European social media during the HU Presidency.
Update (19/07/2011): See coloredopinions for an interesting discussion on Blogging as a Wheat and Chessboard Problem
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The taxpayer offers the European Council a €240m Easter egg
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| Sketch of the new Europa building/Source: Council |
After the 2004 enlargement, says the Council, more permanent office spaces is needed to accomodate new arrivals in Brussels. The European Council therefore decided in March 2004 to offer itself a new building and selected a proposal by the architects Philippe SAMYN & PARTNERS in September 2005. At the time, European leaders demanded that the the cost of the building remain below €240m.
Faced with a frowning Angela Merkel and a fuming David Cameron, angry about the overall cost, the timing of the publication and the amount of €100,000 spent on an advertising brochure, Eurocrats were unapologetic during the recent European Council: "This was decided years ago, before the crisis. It will cost more now to cancel than to complete. It's good value."
The Justus Lipsius Building where meetings of the European Council and the Council of Ministers currently take place has a surface of 137 960 m2 with another 27 130 m2 rented in other buildings. In April, June and October, Ministers shun Brussels to meet in the Kirchberg Conference Centre in Luxembourg.
Although all EU citizens have a reason to be angry about yet another European building whose conference rooms will remain vacant between sessions (the EP building in Strasbourg is vacant in three weeks of four, except for visiting school classes), the really tough bit concerns Belgium. The Belgian government kindly agreed in the name of its citizens to cover the entire cost of the building and only claim reimbursement when it hands the premises over to the EU in 2014.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Minutes from Newropeans/Grillo meeting in Paris
Newropeans is a supranational citizen organization that wants to make the European Union more democratic. Rather than on societal problems, Newropeans mainly focuses on the institutional reform of the European Union. At the European elections 2009, the organization stood for elections in Germany, France and the Netherlands. However, they could bridge neither the threshold in Germany and France nor win a seat in the Netherlands (no threshold). Since then, not much has been heard of them.
Beppe Grillo is an Italian comedian, blogger and millionaire (see my post about him here), who believes that the future of democratic representation lies in the internet. In Italy, he has become quite popular among young people.
Newropeans and Beppe Grillo met in Paris on Saturday. It was the first time since the elections that they really raised their voice. Here are my comments to their livestream (or fast-forward to my analysis at the bottom of this post).
-Start at 14.30
-First twenty minutes: Grillo is poking fun at the world, entertaining the people. Laughs everywhere. The talk is in Italian and French. Most people in the audience seem to understand both. The panel is talking to an elite.
-Now he's talking about the development of his blog. 25 minutes into the talk. Still nothing tangible.
-Livestream viewers remain at about 20. Pretty stable.
-They got me via their Facebook communications. "Beppe Grillo, Franck Biancheri, Marco Travaglio en conférence-débat: La démocratie en danger: Italie-Europe, les citoyens résistent". So far, the discussion hasn't really mentioned where the danger to European democracy lies in the first place. Nor presented any solutions.
-Finally it's getting more tangible. They're talking about broadband internet access for citizens in Italy. Wish he wouldn't always scream like that.
-Grillo talks about the lack of objectivity in Italian media, naming Corriere della Serra as an example. The web offers a second entry into debate which is not restricted by media agendas.
-Grillo stopped talking. Time for questions.
-A citizen reassures Grillo of the solidarity of young Italians. Italy had a big public discussion when a university professor advised young Italians to better leave the country.
-Grillo talks about the potential of online campaigning. The web allowed the Swedish pirate party to gain support. It allows people to connect across different countries and continents.
-I wish he wouldn't scream like that.
-What happened? Viewers sprung up to 440.
-Over to Franck Biancheri, Newropeans president. Led the party into the European elections 2009; they stood for elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany.
-Biancheri talks about the young generation. Flexible, international, able to adapt to changes. A generation that wants to use its rights as European citizens.
-No other continent besides Europe in which cultures interact in a comparable way. Young citizens profit enormously, says Biancheri.
-Biancheri: The power places in Europe are not Berlin or Paris any more, but Brussels and Frankfurt. They are unaccounted for and don't reflect the opinions of the 500 Million citizens of Europe.
-The importance is to create a structure that allows a democracy from below, says Biancheri.
-Those who want to change something see the space for political action diminish in the nation-states and competences move to Brussels. The political debate has to follow to Brussels, according to the Newropeans president.
-Different electoral structures in the nation-states. Germany: 4000 signatures to put up a list for elections. Netherlands: Only very few. Italy: A lot of signatures. The electors in Italy and Germany don't seem to be equal, says Biancheri and wants to create a single electoral procedure in Europe.
-Grillo is back on. Criticizes the fact that there is no common European vision in Brussels.
-Grillo puts on a red hat resembling the hat of the Ku Klux Klan, and disappears from stage.
-Over to Marco Travaglio, Italian journalist.
-Firefox keeps on shutting down.
-Viewers are up at 600.
-Travaglio recommends an Italian blog, opinione.it.
-Back to Biancheri. He says that 80% of all French media are financed by the state.
-"Nothing is going on in the world [seen through the eyes of the French media]. Except an old lady run over in Southern France, a little dog somewhere in France..."
-Recruitment process in French media: "You take young people that aren't really up to the scratch. Fooling someone who doesn't understand is easy. Fooling someone who knows the subject is already more difficult."
-Journalist selection has to follow more specific criteria, he says.
-European journalism: A much bigger difficulty, since the policy area is more difficult to understand.
-Independent European journalists are necessary. The European institutions spend a lot of money to obtain only positive coverage about Brussels politics, says Biancheri.
-The "Erasmus generation" will need to move the EU out of the impasse. "The only language is translation ... We have a lot of young people who speak the five, six biggest languages in Europe. And we have the highest literacy rate in the world."
-My Firefox keeps on failing me. No chance to see the end of the video.
Overall, what I saw was an analysis of the French and Italian media democracy with media that they depicted as controlled by the government. They see the blogosphere as a way to bypass these limitations and create a second arena for public discussion. Projecting it to the European level, they said that a common European discourse had to be created via the virtue of translation, but they didn't really go into detail.
I would have liked to see some more concrete proposals for a democracy from below through the means of social media. Some polarizations could have been left out.
The idea of a common electoral system is interesting and definitely necessary to create a true European democracy. But there are a lot of legal obstacles. And then, public discussion about the EP candidates has to cross the linguistic borders of the nation-states. It will be interesting to see if Newropeans can make any concrete proposals for the piecemeal achievement of a common electoral system.
Beppe Grillo is an Italian comedian, blogger and millionaire (see my post about him here), who believes that the future of democratic representation lies in the internet. In Italy, he has become quite popular among young people.
Newropeans and Beppe Grillo met in Paris on Saturday. It was the first time since the elections that they really raised their voice. Here are my comments to their livestream (or fast-forward to my analysis at the bottom of this post).
-Start at 14.30
-First twenty minutes: Grillo is poking fun at the world, entertaining the people. Laughs everywhere. The talk is in Italian and French. Most people in the audience seem to understand both. The panel is talking to an elite.
-Now he's talking about the development of his blog. 25 minutes into the talk. Still nothing tangible.
-Livestream viewers remain at about 20. Pretty stable.
-They got me via their Facebook communications. "Beppe Grillo, Franck Biancheri, Marco Travaglio en conférence-débat: La démocratie en danger: Italie-Europe, les citoyens résistent". So far, the discussion hasn't really mentioned where the danger to European democracy lies in the first place. Nor presented any solutions.
-Finally it's getting more tangible. They're talking about broadband internet access for citizens in Italy. Wish he wouldn't always scream like that.
-Grillo talks about the lack of objectivity in Italian media, naming Corriere della Serra as an example. The web offers a second entry into debate which is not restricted by media agendas.
-Grillo stopped talking. Time for questions.
-A citizen reassures Grillo of the solidarity of young Italians. Italy had a big public discussion when a university professor advised young Italians to better leave the country.
-Grillo talks about the potential of online campaigning. The web allowed the Swedish pirate party to gain support. It allows people to connect across different countries and continents.
-I wish he wouldn't scream like that.
-What happened? Viewers sprung up to 440.
-Over to Franck Biancheri, Newropeans president. Led the party into the European elections 2009; they stood for elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany.
-Biancheri talks about the young generation. Flexible, international, able to adapt to changes. A generation that wants to use its rights as European citizens.
-No other continent besides Europe in which cultures interact in a comparable way. Young citizens profit enormously, says Biancheri.
-Biancheri: The power places in Europe are not Berlin or Paris any more, but Brussels and Frankfurt. They are unaccounted for and don't reflect the opinions of the 500 Million citizens of Europe.
-The importance is to create a structure that allows a democracy from below, says Biancheri.
-Those who want to change something see the space for political action diminish in the nation-states and competences move to Brussels. The political debate has to follow to Brussels, according to the Newropeans president.
-Different electoral structures in the nation-states. Germany: 4000 signatures to put up a list for elections. Netherlands: Only very few. Italy: A lot of signatures. The electors in Italy and Germany don't seem to be equal, says Biancheri and wants to create a single electoral procedure in Europe.
-Grillo is back on. Criticizes the fact that there is no common European vision in Brussels.
-Grillo puts on a red hat resembling the hat of the Ku Klux Klan, and disappears from stage.
-Over to Marco Travaglio, Italian journalist.
-Firefox keeps on shutting down.
-Viewers are up at 600.
-Travaglio recommends an Italian blog, opinione.it.
-Back to Biancheri. He says that 80% of all French media are financed by the state.
-"Nothing is going on in the world [seen through the eyes of the French media]. Except an old lady run over in Southern France, a little dog somewhere in France..."
-Recruitment process in French media: "You take young people that aren't really up to the scratch. Fooling someone who doesn't understand is easy. Fooling someone who knows the subject is already more difficult."
-Journalist selection has to follow more specific criteria, he says.
-European journalism: A much bigger difficulty, since the policy area is more difficult to understand.
-Independent European journalists are necessary. The European institutions spend a lot of money to obtain only positive coverage about Brussels politics, says Biancheri.
-The "Erasmus generation" will need to move the EU out of the impasse. "The only language is translation ... We have a lot of young people who speak the five, six biggest languages in Europe. And we have the highest literacy rate in the world."
-My Firefox keeps on failing me. No chance to see the end of the video.
Overall, what I saw was an analysis of the French and Italian media democracy with media that they depicted as controlled by the government. They see the blogosphere as a way to bypass these limitations and create a second arena for public discussion. Projecting it to the European level, they said that a common European discourse had to be created via the virtue of translation, but they didn't really go into detail.
I would have liked to see some more concrete proposals for a democracy from below through the means of social media. Some polarizations could have been left out.
The idea of a common electoral system is interesting and definitely necessary to create a true European democracy. But there are a lot of legal obstacles. And then, public discussion about the EP candidates has to cross the linguistic borders of the nation-states. It will be interesting to see if Newropeans can make any concrete proposals for the piecemeal achievement of a common electoral system.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Interacting with politicians? It's possible
Germany is just struggling with a question of German-Polish relations. It's about the appointment for a cultural foundation that works on remembering European reconciliation after the second World War. The Chancellor wants a Polish-hostile CDU politician to sit in the commission; our Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is against her appointment.
Inspired by a discussion on the news portal tagesschau.de and by Conor Slowey, I wrote an email to the minister, trying to give support. What was I thinking? Maybe my email is one of tens of thousands that arrive in these days. Maybe not. Maybe the foreign minister does not get a lot of popular feedback, apart from newspaper comments and articles. And these, as we all know, come from journalists in the high political echelons that are remote from the common people. So I thought a little popular feedback might be a good think. Never expected to get a reply. But today it came, certainly written by his deputy staff rather than himself.
Inspired by a discussion on the news portal tagesschau.de and by Conor Slowey, I wrote an email to the minister, trying to give support. What was I thinking? Maybe my email is one of tens of thousands that arrive in these days. Maybe not. Maybe the foreign minister does not get a lot of popular feedback, apart from newspaper comments and articles. And these, as we all know, come from journalists in the high political echelons that are remote from the common people. So I thought a little popular feedback might be a good think. Never expected to get a reply. But today it came, certainly written by his deputy staff rather than himself.
Dear Mr Feldhof,
thank you for your email on 6 December 2009 and for the support that you expressed. I was very happy to receive it.
As the German Foreign Minister, I have to represent the interests of our country. One of them is to increase relations with our neighbors. To me personally, it is an important point to project the profound relation that Germany has with its western neighbors to Poland as well. ... I will continue to support this direction.
Again, thank you for your email and your support. Personally, all the best to you.
Guido Westerwelle
(my translation)
It doesn't sound like a standard answer they send to all their respondents, does it?
I believe that everybody with the courage to voice his opinion can reach someone in political life. We just have to start writing emails.
Friday, December 11, 2009
French blogosphere organizing a No Sarkozy Day on March 20th 2010
The French press hasn't picked it up yet, the Italians were quicker. This article was in La Repubblica yesterday. After the success of No Berlusconi Day in Italy, organized through Facebook, French bloggers are up to do the same.
Their actions were less successful when they tried to mobilize people against the candidacy of Sarkozy's son Jean for the principal administrator of business district "La Défense". Yet, after public outrage was voiced through the media over weeks, Jean Sarkozy decided to drop his candidacy.
All the best to the French bloggers in organizing the protests! As the country with the biggest demonstration culture in Europe, France should be able to pull off a decent protest on March 20th.
Their actions were less successful when they tried to mobilize people against the candidacy of Sarkozy's son Jean for the principal administrator of business district "La Défense". Yet, after public outrage was voiced through the media over weeks, Jean Sarkozy decided to drop his candidacy.
All the best to the French bloggers in organizing the protests! As the country with the biggest demonstration culture in Europe, France should be able to pull off a decent protest on March 20th.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
New axes in political spectrum?
In a very interesting interview with Le Monde, the secretary general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, talks about the global problems of social democracy. He says that social democracy has to renew its criticism of the capitalist market in order to reach the citizens again.
Over an entire page in the French daily, the former director of the European Commission lays down his visions for a new social democracy in Europe. It could start with a reinforced Party of European Socialists (PES) which allows direct membership, says Lamy.
What I found particularly interesting is his assumption that the old political spectrum left-right (i.e. equalitarian vs. libertarian) has been joined by two new political axes. The first one is the axis expensive-free. The discussion about free access to newspaper articles, books and entertainment facilities play exactly into this axis. They have led to severe discussions on the restriction of the internet in France, Germany, Sweden and other countries and led to the emergence of the pirate party at the European elections.
The second axis that Pascal Lamy sees is consumerism-anthropology (he says "economy-anthropology"), namely the question if money is really the ultimate donor of happiness.
I'm not sure if I'm following him in this analysis. But yet, I tried to graph it. And you will notice that I added two other axes that I find important: pro-European/anti-European and pro-immigrant/anti-immgrant. I would invite you to copy and modify this graph and to imagine further axes which are important to citizens today. Maybe, in a joint effort, we can find out how citizens "function" today, and what aspects are important to them in an election.
Simple bitmap-file. The font is Georgia, 8 pt.
Over an entire page in the French daily, the former director of the European Commission lays down his visions for a new social democracy in Europe. It could start with a reinforced Party of European Socialists (PES) which allows direct membership, says Lamy.
What I found particularly interesting is his assumption that the old political spectrum left-right (i.e. equalitarian vs. libertarian) has been joined by two new political axes. The first one is the axis expensive-free. The discussion about free access to newspaper articles, books and entertainment facilities play exactly into this axis. They have led to severe discussions on the restriction of the internet in France, Germany, Sweden and other countries and led to the emergence of the pirate party at the European elections.
The second axis that Pascal Lamy sees is consumerism-anthropology (he says "economy-anthropology"), namely the question if money is really the ultimate donor of happiness.
I'm not sure if I'm following him in this analysis. But yet, I tried to graph it. And you will notice that I added two other axes that I find important: pro-European/anti-European and pro-immigrant/anti-immgrant. I would invite you to copy and modify this graph and to imagine further axes which are important to citizens today. Maybe, in a joint effort, we can find out how citizens "function" today, and what aspects are important to them in an election.
Simple bitmap-file. The font is Georgia, 8 pt.
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