Anyway, the video is a nice reminder what the POTEC (that sounds quite cool – is there also an official short form?) actually does – arguably not that much. So no need to get overexicted by this new position. A video that should definitely be watched by journalists and governmental website editors:
Happy birthday to bloggingportal.eu! We are celebrating 1 year of Bloggingportal.eu! Last January we launched the page and it has been a great first year. More than 500 euroblogs, 25 editors and thousands of visitors! Thanks for all your support and help! Do continue to spread the word – and feel free to give us your feedback!
Günther Öttinger famously declared a few years ago that English will become the global working language (“Englisch wird die Arbeitssprache”).So, his job as the EU commissioner for energy is certainly a great opportunity for him to use his English skills… But just watch for yourself:
I had a very interesting discussion on twitter with @npanayotopoulos, @EULondonRep and @MiaLeenaSofia about EU mobility and practical obstacles when moving around Europe.
If you are a regular reader of this blog you are probably aware of the fact that I am quite interested in this topic, see for example my posts about the Sainsbury ID issue and my UK bank account story.
Anyway, what are your experiences when moving from one EU country to another? Share your views in the comments here: Moving on up « Talking about the EU.
(In case you do not know this blog: It is the blog of the head of media at the European Commission in London – so a comment about your issues there might make it into the EU machinery… you never know!
Einer der ersten Artikel über “uns euroblogger” in einer traditionellen überregionalen Zeitung (oder ist das etwa der erste ueberhaupt?), und dann auch noch ausgerechnet in der Schweiz - einem nicht EU-Mitglied! Es würde mich natürlich interessieren ob es den Artikel auch in gedruckter Form gibt…?
…EU, Europe or European Council? Here we go again. We know that many journalists do not understand why it is European Council President and why it is important to get EU terminology right. But to be honest, journalists do not seem to learn (and they love the easy words that make the story sound good…) and I pretty much gave up complaining about it (although I still think it is quite a disaster…)
But is it too much to ask that the government gets it right? After all it is often the member states that are keen to make sure that certain EU terms should not sound too similar to national terms…
So, today Number10.gov.uk – the official site of the Prime Minister’s Office in the UK had this top story:
The only positive thing about this story is that the Prime Minister got it right…
But coming back to the editors at Number10.gov.uk – Not only do they seem to borrow journalists from the mainstream media they also don’ t seem to care about feedback unlike the Foreign Office.
The UK Foreign Office (FCO) was quick to change its twitter status update after an intervention by the Commission Representation in London on twitter! (check the FCO twitter updates before and after this tweet)
But the website of Downing Street is still the same despite their presence on twitter. So, I wrote a DM to Downing Street – let’s see whether they change the website…and whether they react to DM on twitter!
“Harnessing the power of the Internet for better communication” – Here is an interesting open letter (in case you have not seen it on twitter…) from the European Commission’s Internet editors and webmasters to Commission President Barroso and incoming Commissioners in which they ask for more web 2.0 in EU institutions… Read it here.
I think it is a very good initiative. There are a lot of opportunities for EU institutions by engaging with web tools. Unfortunately there is still a rather widespread skepticism among politicians and officials despite a few good examples how to use web 2.0 tools successfully. Hopefully this letter will contribute to a rethink in the institutions. Moreover, this would also be a good topic to bring up during the Commission-designate hearings in the European Parliament this week…
Here are two articles I came across today (what a coincidence…) that offer a quite surprising perspective on Europe by some rather well known US writers:
I wonder what Americans would think if every single one of them could travel to Paris or London, go through the airport and ride the public transportation system, and spend a week seeing how well some public institutions (though of course not all) actually work. I somehow suspect a lot of them would come home and ask themselves why Americans don’t have the same thing. This effect would be compounded if they all re-entered the United States at Logan Airport or La Guardia.
Europe is often held up as a cautionary tale, a demonstration that if you try to make the economy less brutal, to take better care of your fellow citizens when they’re down on their luck, you end up killing economic progress. But what European experience actually demonstrates is the opposite: social justice and progress can go hand in hand.
