Anyone interested in European affairs would find it very useful. That is, if they can find it. It is the EU Calendar, a tool that existed for quite a while (without anyone knowing of its existence, thus making it utterly irrelevant) and it was officially presented last Friday, January 30- a piece of information restricted to people who are already using the calendar.
Leaving aside the fact that it is probably not used and valued at its full capacity, the Calendar is a great service, offering access to information on EU affairs, agendas of the EU institutions, schedules of legislative debates, activities and events related to the EU. Moreover, it is quite an attractive, user-friendly tool, that can come in very handy when monitoring EU affairs, as you can search the information by topic, by institution or by date. Its added value rests in the fact that it brings together all these bits and pieces of information, otherwise scattered on the Europa server. That being its main goal, one would imagine that such an instrument would feature very visibly on the EU website, being mentioned quite a few times, if not on the main policy areas pages. Well, it seems that is not exactly the case, as we are facing yet another example of the series: “Let’s make EU transparent…but can we keep this secret?”
It almost seems as if the EU’communication policy is governed by a set of rules that, instead of increasing the efficiency, make it completely counterproductive. Here are a few of them, as they apply to the EU calendar case:
1. Create a useful tool that can actually shed light on what the EU is doing and make it easier for people (journalists, academics, lobbyists, etc) to follow;
2. Try (hard) not to make it visible on the main website (www.europa.eu); that hard that even if its URL is http://europa.eu/eucalendar/, it cannot be reached from the front page;
3. Try (harder) not to link it on any other page where its use could be relevant. After all, if people are so determined to find out what you are doing, they will do their best to find it;
4. (follow up of rule 3) Avoid at any cost any reference to the tool, within or outside Europa.eu. We already have enough banners and initiatives and we don’t want people to get confused.
5. Do not even think of a public launch event. People might actually find out about it and start using it. Keep it “low key”, otherwise we are again accused of propaganda and we definitely don’t want that.
It seems the EU still can’t figure out what types of information and what services are the most suitable (and necessary) to disseminate its policies. That is quite a pity, as some very good initiatives, such as the EU Calendar, become “hidden gems” instead of reference tools, a well-deserved price for those either connected to the designer or stubborn enough to spend hours searching for it.
According to Google, there are two links to the EU calendar: one by the Polish EC presentation and one on Kosmopolito
I still think that the EU calendar integrated with the press room and Europe by Satellite and ideally combined with private run online media coverage would make an amazing useful EU website. But I think it’s better done by a non-institutional actor.
Kosmopolito, you are too negative. You have to understand that unless the Irish approve the Lisbon Treaty, there will be no majority voting on the concept of the ‘calendar’. National interest vary, and there is not even a common, accepted standard for a webcalendar, so the Commission had no power to build a more powerful tool. However, if you empower it with the use of the American Google.com on your on risk, which does not fall under the European consumer protection jurisdiction, you still might find out what’s going on in the EU.
Have bookmarked the calendar for daily use now, thank you!
And yes, let’s blame the Irish no vote, sure why not? Easiest thing to do, after all – nice scapegoat for all EU-related issues… Gotta love democracy.
Who ever knew Europa had an EU Calendar – Thanks @Kosmopolit ! http://tinyurl.com/czwl6j
@lino_lounge ….and I even blogged about it at the time
http://ow.ly/HVLf