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As you will see the “Best European Blog (Non UK)” category is very diverse and includes quite different  and also some rather big blogs which will make it difficult to win the category. And it is interesting to note that “European” actually means everything “non-UK”, so the finalists cannot really be compared. But to be a finalist (and the only one with a European/EU perspective!) is already a huge achievement for our little blog which back in 2007 won an award as the most underappreciated weblog in Europe…

There are some more EU focused blogs hidden in other categories: Nosemonkey is nominated for Best UK Blog and A Fistful of Euros is nominated for Best Business blog (I wonder how they ended up there).

1. The main ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award: it is to be given to the lobbyist, company or lobby group that in 2008 has employed the most deceptive, misleading, or otherwise problematic lobbying tactics in their attempts to influence EU decision-making.
2. This year’s event also includes a special ‘Worst Conflict of Interest’ Award for the MEP, Commissioner or Commission official whose background, side-jobs or other liaisons with special interests raise the most serious concerns about their ability to act in public interest. This category has been introduced to highlight the need for the Institutions to act to clean up their own house – the past years have seen many cases of conflicts of interests and not much action by the institutions to prevent them.

Winners of last years awards include German car manufacturers BMW, Daimler and Porsche for the ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award and “The German Atomic Forum” was awarded the special prize for ‘Worst EU Greenwash’.

I think this is quite an important initiative that is worth supporting! Go here to nominate your “favourite” lobbyist, company, MEP, Commissioner…  Nominations close 12th September, the internet voting will start on 13th October!

It should be rather easy to find someone for the second category (I am sure a MEP will make it to the final…)! I am still thinking about an appropriate campaign/ company for the first category… if you have good ideas, just post it in the comments!