WSJ blog: Real Time Brussels (Twitter tag #bkaeb)

Martin on Europaeum proposed the new Twitter tag for blog posts presenting Euroblogs worth reading: #bkaeb (for Better Know A EuroBlog). The new tag has been described as a #followfriday (or #ff) recommending Euroblogs.



Holiday season is reflected in the low number of blog entries aggregated on Bloggingportal.eu right now, but for my contribution to the Better Know A EuroBlog August 2010 challenge I am going to deal only with blogs which have published recently.



Naturally, the eligible Euroblogs (related to EU affairs) have to be ones I follow among those listed on Bloggingportal.eu.



Blogs kept by (mainstream) media or written by professional journalists are important and influential in the Euroblogosphere, even when the blog is only a sideline to the main reporting activities.



Based on its knowledge of the EU economic and political scene, the public affairs consultancy Fleishman-Hillard Brussels has selected fifteen Euroblogs by journalists.



One of these emblematic Euroblogs is the Wall Street Journal blog Real Time Brussels, which combines insider and outsider traits, explaining “Europe” to mainly US readers.



Most of the Real Time Brussels entries deal with serious stuff, such as France and Germany on economic government, fake goods (counterfeit and pirated products), European bank stress tests, EU population and demographic trends, antitrust (competition), large scale investment into agriculture in developing countries (land grabbing), value-added tax (VAT), the European Central Bank (ECB) and high-denomination euro banknotes, and economic recovery.




Sometimes Real Time Brussels takes a stroll from the office to the playground, as when it reports on the rapidly growing parakeet population in the de facto capital of the European Union.

Relevant issues and professional writing make WSJ Real Time Brussels one of the Euroblogs to follow.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:

I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.