Building the EU Digital Agenda – Competitiveness Report 2009

The Digital Competitiveness Report 2009 was one of the main building blocks of what became the EU2020 flagship initiative A Digital Agenda for Europe. We return to the communication and some relevant blog posts.

The Digital Competitiveness Report 2009 - COM(2009) 390, mentioned among the Digital Agenda main sources, is available in 22 official EU languages. The English version of the short communication from the Commission:

Europe’s Digital Competitiveness Report - Main achievements of the i2010 strategy 2005-2009; Brussels, 4.8.2009 COM(2009) 390 final


Grahnlaw blog posts

The entry 'European Union's information society and media policies presented' (23 December 2009) took stock of how the first Barroso Commission extolled its virtues regarding the i2010 strategy.

The Grahnlaw blog post 'Information society: EU's i2010 strategy assessed' (23 December 2009) offered a few remarks during the preparatory stage of the new European digital agenda, and it linked to the communication as well as the more detailed accompanying documents SEC(2009) 1060, SEC(2009) 1103 and SEC(2009) 1104.

'EU 2020 strategy and future digital agenda under work' (24 December 2009) focused on the public consultations.

'Swedish presidency and EU Commission: preparing Digital Agenda' (24 December 2009) recorded how main actors had approached the upcoming priority debate at the TTE Council.

One of the milestones passed during the Swedish presidency of the Council of the European Union, was reflected in the blog entry 'EU Telecommunications Council on post i2010 strategy: Towards a new digital agenda' (25 December 2009), including a reference to the detailed conclusions.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. In the Social Europe Journal, Ulrike Guerot of the ECFR writes about Germany's relationship with the European Union: Re-kindling Berlin's love for Brussels.
For more detailed discussion you can turn to the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) publication: What does Germany think about Europe?
I am reminded of my growing doubts in the May 2009 blog post: And Quiet Flows the Spree – Merkel's Germany in the EU.

Gordon Brown on Europe

When Gordon Brown spoke about Britain’s unique place in the world and about advancing Britain’s national interest, he actually managed to mention the European Union in his five page speech:

“Through our membership of the European Union – which gives us and 26 other countries the unique opportunity to work together on economic, environmental and security challenges – and the Commonwealth, and through our commitment to NATO and the UN, we have the capacity to work together with all those who share our vision of the future. And I do not see these as partnerships in competition with each other but mutually reinforcing.”

Specifically Brown had a vision for the EU:

“I want to play my part in helping the European Union move away from its past preoccupation with inward looking institutional reform and I will work with others to propose a comprehensive agenda for a Global Europe – a Europe that is outward looking, open, internationalist, able to effectively respond both through internal reform and external action to the economic, security and environmental imperatives of globalisation.”

***

Daniel Korski, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, gave two cheers for the speech: one for making a positive case for how the EU can amplify Member State policies and a second one for focusing on an outward-looking attempt at addressing the world’s challenges.

Korski still missed an explicit case being made for the Lisbon Treaty’s new “bureaucratic arrangements” and for EU enlargement.

***

I wonder. Is this indicative of the level of engagement, clarity of vision and concreteness of proposals the ECFR is going to expect from the European Union and the national leaders?

In that case establishing the new think-tank was a waste of energy and money.

Gordon Brown almost overlooking the European Union may not have come as much of a surprise, but the ECFR, too?

Let us hope that more comprehensive European analyses and agendas are forthcoming.


Ralf Grahn


Sources:

Gordon Brown: Lord Mayor’s Banquet Speech: PM outlines foreign policy priorities; 12 November 2007; http://www.number10.gov.uk

Daniel Korski: Two cheers for Gordon Brown’s speech; The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), 13 November 2007; http://www.ecfr.eu

October in the European Union

I have been fairly busy on my Finnish Euroblog during the first third of October. My aim has been to deal with topical and fundamental questions from a pan-European perspective, but also commenting on Finnish EU policies. There are 22 new blog posts on the address:

http://grahnlaw.blogs.fi


They have the following headings:


Kansa muutosvoimaksi?

Euroopan puolustus ja Nato

Suomen linja pysyy salaisuutena

Euroopan ulkoasiainneuvosto

Mark Leonard

Sotilaallinen mato

Puheet ja teot

Euroblogit

Senaatin valinta

Liberum veto

Pohjoinen ja eteläinen Eurooppa

EU:n luokkakuva

Uudistussopimus englanniksi

Uudistussopimus suomeksi

Mitkä turvatakuut?

Stubbin keskustelukutsu

Euroopan sosialistit keskustelevat

Europarlamentaarikot keskustelijoina

”Ultraliberalismi” katosi

Erkki Toivanen EU:n ulkopolitiikasta

Unionimme koko kuva

Nato ja EU liikkeellä


Regards
Ralf Grahn
http://grahnlaw.blogs.fi