The focus this time is much broader and goes beyond Europe, however,  from a European perspective it would be very interesting to have someone covering EU climate change policy and  looking at how the EU  approaches the COP 15 negotiations in Copenhagen…

Check out the details:

TH!NK2 Climate Change is a 3 month blogging competition with a focus on UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) in December 2009. 81 bloggers from Europe with featured guests from India, China Brazil and the USA, representing the world’s biggest players in climate policy, will come together on the European Journalism Centre‘s thinkaboutit.eu platform, to exchange ideas and debate the issues of climate change.

Participants are encouraged to report about stories in their own back yards; to bring out the local side of a global issue. The aim is to create a portal into the minds of 81 people, to show how each one experiences the effects of Climate Change policies every day.

Go to the official website to find out more!

Think about it! – The (first!) European Blogging Competition 2009 is a new blogging competition (some nice gadgets up for grabs) organised by the European Journalism Centre! The competition will start in February and will last until the EP elections. The exciting thing is that there will be a training component for all participants (after all it is run by a professional journalism organisation;-) You do not necessarily be a journalist or blogger, however you should be interested in EU affairs and the EP elections and you should feel enthusiastic about tryinig out blogging for a few months! If that sounds like a good idea to you can join the official facebook group and you can sign up here:

A dynamic community of bloggers, journalists and journalism students, a forum alive with debate and discussion, a creative portal to inspire youth involvement with the 2009 Parliamentary Elections, brought to you by the European Journalism Centre (EJC).

The goal is to get Europeans to THINK ABOUT IT and to express their views on Europe through an online blogging competition. The invited bloggers will cover, report, critique and debate on campaign issues and candidates. EJC editors will give feedback on the journalistic standards of the blog posts.

The EJC invites three bloggers from each EU member state for a two-day THINK ABOUT IT launch event in Brussels 25-27.1.2009. At the kick-off invitees are briefed on the European blogsphere, European Parliament, elections and on understanding the EU from a journalist’s perspective. The event also launches the blog contest, which invitees participate in throughout the official campaign season.

For more information just click here. Some fancy banners for your website/blog in various sizes can be found here.

Disclaimer: The author of this blog has been involved in the development of the project.

Apple is ditching its policy of charging UK consumers more than other Europeans when they buy songs from its iTunes service, following an EU antitrust investigation. The computing giant announced this morning that it will cut prices at its UK iTunes store within six months, bringing them into line with iTunes pricing across Europe.

The move is a significant victory for the Which? consumer watchdog. It prompted the EC’s antitrust proceedings against Apple last year by complaining that British customers paid almost 10% more than those in the eurozone.

So, within 6 months there will be a 10% cut in prices for music download on iTunes UK. Here is the EU press release. At the same time a cartel case against big record companies was dropped because the Commission could not prove that record companies were imposing these sales arrangements on Apple.

I think this is a good example how the EU can actually help consumers in Europe. It would be a good opportunity for the EU to communicate this success in the UK in a clear and concise manner. (The press release is not a good example for that…). But positive EU news usually disappear rather quickly. At the end of the day Apple will run a big advertising campaign to promote lower prices which will probably boost sales. It must be frustrating to work in DG Comp.

Another interesting issue in that context is whether this decision will have any implications on the proposed Commission consultation on how to deal with the online content industry in Europe.

Update 11.1.08: Today David Miliband writes about this issue (Europe Makes a Difference to People’s Lives – Shock) in his blog and reckons that this story “will bring a smile to the Prime Minister”.

Anyway, many shops prepared for this special event in a rather surprising way: shops closed yesterday around 4.30 pm (!) in order to prepare the sales. Of course this is rather annoying for the customers, but since this is Belgium we should not be surprised… and this is only the tip of the iceberg! To get the full picture about sales and competition principles in Belgium read this excellent article in The Economist:

During the twice-yearly pre-sales blackouts (there are also summer sales) a hundred inspectors from the Belgian economics ministry scour the country for advertisements, window stickers or price tags that even hint at discounts. A Prohibition-style speakeasy culture has sprung up in response. Gambits include putting question-marks on price tags and advertising “friendly prices”. Chic boutiques in Brussels telephone favoured customers or send them “privilege cards”, inviting them to pop in for an early visit. Controls must be “extremely severe” to ensure that the rules stick, explains Robert Geurts of the economics ministry, who glories in the title of director-general for regulation and organisation of the market. Inspectors receive many tips by telephone as rival shopkeepers denounce each other.

If all this sounds fundamentally illiberal, that is because it is.

(More…)