I owe this post to Jean Quatremer’s Coulisses de Bruxelles: Toi aussi hacke le site de la présidence tchèque de l’UE ! (17 June 2009)
Instead of convening to anoint José Manuel Barroso as chief of the European Commission, the European Council should study the outcome of the survey of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The Czech government asked, in three languages: Should José Manuel Barroso be re-appointed as President of the European Commission?
The results against Barroso (No-votes) were (per 8 June 2009, according to the web page; when I checked a little while ago):
• English 75%
• Czech 82%
• French 89%
Such polls are not especially reliable, but if the acting Council Presidency asks the citizens of the European Union, one would expect their opinion to be taken into account.
We live in a union where decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen, don’t we?
Ralf Grahn
Thursday, 18 June 2009
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Mmm...
ReplyDeleteIt's weird that the Czech version of the poll went from overwhelmingly anti-Barroso on the 8th to very pro-Barroso before Jean Quatremer's contact hacked it on the 17th. Looks like Barroso is being supported by some Czech netizens, and not only the Portuguese spammers that bother Jon Worth so much.
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteAs reported by Jean Quatremer and Quoi de neuf en Europe and checked by me, still more weird that the poll has disappeared altogether from the web site of the Czech Council Presidency.
Luckily, I noted the results on my blog just a few minutes before my post, because if I had been content with a link, they would have disappeared.
This was one of the great "listening exercises" of the Council of the European Union, taking into account the unanimous but provisional support the European Council gave Barroso after the disappearing act.