Articles on the EU Energy Union

Here is a compilation of the entries on my euroblogs introducing the Energy Union of the European Union.  

Eurooppaoikeus in Finnish

EU:n energiaunionin puitteet

EU:n energiaunionipaketti

Grahnblawg in Swedish

Åtgärdspaketet för en energiunion

Kring energiunionen i Europaparlamentet

Grahnlaw in English

State of the EU Energy Union

Second Report on the State of the Energy Union

Energy Union: Commission work programme for 2017  

Currently I am looking at one interesting member state in the EU, Denmark, before returning to the markets.

Ralf Grahn

Blog posts about digital single market

For the sake of order, until we return to the theme, here is a compilation of blog posts about the future European digital single market (DSM) on my Finnish, Swedish and English euroblogs:  

Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish):

EU:n digitaalisten sisämarkkinoiden strategia

Digitaalisten sisämarkkinoiden strategia Euroopalle

Euroopan parlamentin roolista

EU:n digimarkkinastrategia Euroopan parlamentissa

Grahnblawg (in Swedish):

EU:s strategi för en digital inre marknad

Huvudpunkter för en digital inre marknad

En digital inre marknad: namnkrångel i Europaparlamentet

En verklig digital inre marknad: krav och potential

Digitala allmänningar (digital commons) i Europaparlamentet

Bloggartiklar kring strategin för en digital inre marknad  

Grahnlaw (in English)

The EU digital single market strategy

Main points of EU digital single market strategy

Digital single market litmus test

Elements of style: digital single market in European Parliament

Digital commons in the European Parliament

EP breaking down national silos in digital markets?

A union of shopkeepers?

It is fascinating to see, if Europeans still have the collective will and ability to succeed in interstate and international commerce and in the digital world, but before we return to these subjects, we are going to collect impressions in another policy area (energy) and in one EU member state (Denmark).

Ralf Grahn

Information society, online media and Bloggingportal.eu

What can you expect from a three year old? I decided to see if the new posts on Bloggingportal.eu are good for other people than those interested in how many EU institutions can dance on the head of a pin.

Instead I opted for one or more policy areas related to the European information society (tag: infosoc) and online media (tag: media) during the last 24 hours or so.

Here is what I registered:

Eurooppaoikeus: Tekijänoikeustoimikunta verkkopiratismia vastaan

Grahnblawg: Framtiden online i Riksdagen

The IPKat: Congress 1, Public 0 – the U.S. Supreme Court's Big Decision in Golan v. Holder

The IPKat: Gambling on appeal? Seeing Red over 32

Europolice: EU surveillance

Mathew Lowry's Tagsmanian Devil: Dear Sony, so much for .eu

FT Brussles blog, Stanley Pignal: Steelie Neelie takes on the Hungarians

Google, European Public Policy Blog: Promoting small businesses and economic growth in Europe

TheIPKat: When reporting ”trumps” copyright: the sad case of Declan Hainey

Waltzing Matilda: Tools Tuesday: The Archivist

Groenlinks: ACTA rampzalig voor ontwikkelingslanden

Erkan's Field Diary: anti France imagery after the genocide bill in Turkish twittersphere

Eva en Europa: Hungría y el liberticidio se topan con la Unión Europea

Netzpolitik: ACTA: Kontaktiert den EU-Entwicklungsausschuss

Recent developments in European consumer law: EU data protection reform

Public Service Europe, Sabine Wils: Electronic waste – Europe living beyond its means

Rhein on Energy and Climate, Eberhard Rhein: EU is going ahead with stricter recycling of electric and electronic Waste


Comment

Not bad, I would say, for a day and a night. Theoretically Bloggingportal.eu has 904 euroblogs listed, but blogs come and go, so some are now inactive. However, during the last seven days close to 250 blogs have published one or more blog posts, which is quite impressive.

If I look at the information society themes, such as copyright, e-commerce, piracy, entrepreneurship, data protection etc., as well as matters related to online media, I feel that you can keep fairly well up to date by following all new posts on Bloggingportal.eu, not only the editors' choice (front page).

However, many of the best European tech and policy blogs have not yet found their way to Bloggingportal.eu, even if the EU is an important hub for the ITC issues debated both at global and at national level.

You can propose both individual articles and new blogs to Bloggingportal.eu. Perhaps you have a few policy oriented examples you could share, because the future of Europe is online.



Ralf Grahn

Euroblogs in German

Yesterday I looked at the euro crisis and euroblogs on Bloggingportal.eu, the multilingual aggregator. As I said:

Increasingly Europeans realise that they are in the same boat, although some design the improved vessels for the future, some recall scrapped luxury liners of past glory, some see the Titanic fatally heading towards the iceberg (while deck-chairs are being arranged) and some remind us of the harsh and unjust treatment (austerity) which led to the Mutiny on the Bounty.

German and Germany

According to Wikipedia, German was (2007) the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union (18 per cent of EU population; plus the mother tongue of 4.6 million in the enclave Switzerland). Some 32 per cent of people in the EU were able to speak German, making it the second most widely understood language after English (51%).

In political terms, the rest of the European Union and the eurozone have been waiting for Merkozy to stop fiddling, while the UK prime minister David Cameron can mostly watch and hope on the sidelines, so it is impossible to ignore Germany, the most populous nation of the EU in addition to having the strongest economy.

Indeed, together German speaking Germany (82 million) and Austria (8.4 million) represent about 27% of the population in the eurozone and about 18% of the EU total (Eurostat).


Euroblogs in German

In the spirit of cross-border discussion and understanding, Europaeum - @mteu on Twitter – one of the Bloggingportal editors, has compiled an English presentation of the active EU blogosphere in German, including Austrian ones, three from the Baltic states and a Franco-German blog.

Martin then continued with an entry with German language blogs listed on Bloggingportal, which have published since July 2011, a much longer list including a number of policy blogs and blogs by MEPs.

If your euroblog is still missing (or someone else's), you can propose the blog on EU politics or policy areas to Bloggingportal.eu.



Ralf Grahn

Euro crisis and euroblogs on Bloggingportal

The euro is the currency of 332 million people, more than the home of the United States dollar (about 313 million). The severe euro crisis affects not only the 17 countries of the eurozone, but the economic prospects in the whole European Union (population 502 million) and beyond, actually the world economy.

We have seen the leaders of the eurozone and EU countries struggling to find credible intergovernmental solutions to European level problems. Another week of high level meetings is about to begin, without clear and comprehensive proposals for all to see.

Small wonder that the crises in the euro area, which turned into the crisis of the euro itself, have spawned cross-border discussion on an unprecedented scale. Euroblogs are among the movers in the emerging European public sphere, where common challenges and shortcomings are recorded and evaluated above the level of national politics.

Increasingly Europeans realise that they are in the same boat, although some design the improved vessels for the future, some recall scrapped luxury liners of past glory, some see the Titanic fatally heading towards the iceberg (while deck-chairs are being arranged) and some remind us of the harsh and unjust treatment (austerity) which led to the Mutiny on the Bounty.

The euro crisis and other European questions are treated in the new blog posts which are aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. At this moment 887 euroblogs are listed, although not all of them remain active. During the last seven days 256 blogs published at least one post, but some blogs produce several entries each week.

Somewhat erratically the voluntary editors of Bloggingportal select good blog posts for the front page, which sends them off to Twitter and includes them in the daily newsletter (email subscription).

There are RSS feeds for the editors' choice and for all new posts. You can propose a relevant blog post or a new blog dealing with EU affairs. You could also show community spirit by volunteering for the tagging and the selection of blog posts as an active editor of Bloggingportal.eu.

Most weeks the Bloggingportal.eu blog offers a roundup of the Week in Bloggingportal, with light comment on promoted posts.



Ralf Grahn

Euroblog Thanksgiving in the eurozone

Today I want to import the Thanksgiving tradition in the USA to express my gratitude to some posts on the 890 euroblogs aggregated by Bloggingportal.eu.

The spectre of eurozone breakup seems to advance faster than the mini-summits Fabien l'Européen finds insufficient. Moral hazard pales in comparison with eurozone breakup, writes Susan Fuchs, who discusses the need for Germany to act.

The danger of gaullist regression is ever present in France, says Arnaud Leparmentier. Le Taurillon interviews professor Philippe Martin, who points in the opposite direction: The European Central Bank needs to become a lender of last resort, which requires a change of the ECB statute. The eurozone demands much deeper fiscal integration.

Place du Luxembourg offers a solid and factual roundup of the eurozone during November. Coulisses de Bruxelles discusses the eurobond proposal from the Commission, but in the short term the ECB needs to intervene in the bond markets without limit.



Ralf Grahn

More Europe Manifesto: EU symbols represent values

As I mentioned here and here, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe, in order to overcome the impending catastrophe in the eurozone and the wider European Union and to start a virtuous circle of development for the citizens of the union.

You can join the appeal on the More Europe blog and you can participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope, hashtag #moreurope.

They act as EU citizens, so they want to build on European achievements important for ordinary people. Their appeal is now available in eight languages.

After stating the need for greater European integration, they see the symbols of the European Union as important expressions of our shared values.

“More Europe” Statement

Given the dramatic social situation in many Member States caused by the economical crisis and the anti-European voices predicting the breakup of the Economic and Monetary Union, the undersigned ask for More Europe.

We consider it is necessary to move to a greater European integration in order to address the current situation of social and economic crisis affecting Europe and for this reason we will join our forces as European citizens. To achieve our goal we claim that:

-----

2) The symbols and the flag of the EU are not just objects. Otherwise they represent our values as a community, which are fundamental to the progress and democracy of the European society.

***

In a declaration (52), attached to the Treaty of Lisbon, sixteen of the member states expressed similar sentiments. They are Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic.

They declared that the flag with a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background, the anthem based on the ‘Ode to Joy’ from the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, the motto ‘United in diversity’, the euro as the currency of the European Union and Europe Day on 9 May will for them continue as symbols to express the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it.

The Europa portal offers you information about the symbols of the EU and additional links. Wikipedia broadens the scope to our continent Europe, with symbols from myth, history and art.

This makes me think of the Deutsches Historisches Museum, which published a catalogue with a magnificent collection of art depicting the idea of Europe (Idee Europa) through the ages, for an exhibition in 2003. I wish that every European family could have a DHM book of its own.

The appeal from the eurobloggers on the More Europe blog and on Twitter @moreurope reminds us that our common cultural roots and our shared destiny go much deeper than mere material advantages.



Ralf Grahn

Eurozone: Citizens concerned

If the national governments want something better than the impending crash, why don't they get to grips with the issues of democratic empowerment and sufficient powers at European level?

This is where we stand today: Eurozone: A matter of common concern, a real concern for citizens and businesses alike.

According to Jacques Delors, the former president of the European Commission, the euro and Europe are on the brink of the abyss. Notre Europe has collected the interviews and media reactions: Jacques Delors face à la crise de l'euro.

In Le Taurillon, Nessim Znaïen highlighted some proposals by Delors in the interview published by Le Temps.

Spencer Kimball, on European Dialogue, stated that US, EU debt crisis escalates in the face of political gridlock.

The Green MEP Reinhardt Bütikofer cautiously speaks about the need for empowering the European Parliament in the management of the euro crisis.

The calculus of not saving the Euro goes beyond economics, but it is in fact a political decision, Maxime Larive wrote on the Foreign Policy Association blog.

The blog of the office of György Schöpflin MEP noted the threat of intergovernmentalism. The Franco-German plans to govern the euro are expressly designed to circumvent the Commission and the European Parliament. The pressure to reassert state-national interest over a European-level interest neglects and probably damages the EU’s conflict resolution function.

Come September, when, or rather if, the permanent bailout mechanism takes over the role of the ECB, we shall see whether these crisis measures are enough to save the euro, Finn Maigaard wrote on the Foreign Policy Association blog.

Finland insists on getting collateral for participating in the second Greek rescue package. Other eurozone governments have reacted and the markets are raising alarms, Peter Spiegel wrote on the FT Brussels blog.

The current crisis in Europe isn’t just a Greek or German or Irish or Portuguese problem, it’s a European one, Jason O'Mahony wrote.

Protesilaos Stavrou wrote that if things stay as they are then we will reach a dead end that will signal the start of the collapse of the euro and of everything that took decades to build. The blog post offers practical proposals on remedies for the systemic crisis.

The European Central Bank is forced to act as a fire department, because chancellor Merkel postpones the saving of the euro. After months of silence, the German president Christian Wulff finds nothing better to say than to criticise the independent ECB, Eric Bonse wrote on Lost in Europe (in German).

Laurence Boon, on Telos, explains that eurobonds are no miracle cure, but they could be a help on certain conditions.

Megan Green reasons that Eurobonds could work, but we'll probably never know. Throughout the euro crisis, EU leaders have repeatedly demonstrated that their top priority is their own national self-interest, despite the huge potential downside risks this poses to the common currency.

Although the European Union is formally a democracy, it does not act like one. We're in the middle of a massive crisis, but when it comes to the solutions, we are talking about national solutions to European problems, wrote The European Citizen.

***

If the national governments want something better, why don't they discuss politically legitimate government and sufficient solutions to European problems?

The new articles on 841 euroblogs are just one click away. Follow and participate in the discussion about the eurozone and other European issues on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, an important part of the European public space.



Ralf Grahn

Roundup of Digital Agenda for Europe

The latest Digital Agenda for Europe roundup was published on Grahnlaw Suomi Finland 17 July 2011. Especially the 2009 seminal report from the Swedish government has experienced a renaissance among readers through the blog post: A Green Knowledge Society (Digital Agenda).

Since then I have written a few more entries about the Europe 2020 (EU 2020) flagship initiative called the Digital Agenda, including the Digital Single Market, so here is a collection of new posts on my four euroblogs.

Grahnblawg (in Swedish): Vision om det gröna kunskapssamhället (17 July 2011)

Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish): EU kohti digitaalistrategiaa: neuvosto 2009 (18 July 2011)

Grahnblawg (in Swedish): Sverige och EU-slutsatser om kunskapssamhället (december 2009) (18 July 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Spain and ICT industry towards Digital Agenda for Europe (2010) (18 July 2011)

Grahnlaw: Granada Ministerial Declaration on the European Digital Agenda (19 July 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Finnish): Digitaalistrategia: Euroopan parlamentin 2015.eu (19 July 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Swedish): Europaparlamentet om en ny digital agenda: 2015.eu (19 July 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Swedish): En digital agenda för Europa: utgångspunkter (20 July 2011)

Grahnlaw: Digital Single Market in Digital Agenda for Europe (21 July 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Digital Single Market continued (Digital Agenda for Europe) (22 July 2011)

Grahnlaw: Interoperability and standards in Digital Agenda for Europe (23 July 2011)

Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish): Euroopan digitaalistrategian tulostaulu 2011 (24 July 2011)

***

Which aspects of the Digital Agenda do you find most crucial for the living standards and quality of life of EU citizens? You can comment below or share your thoughts by email.



Ralf Grahn


P.S. Erkki Ormala, the president of DigitalEurope, shared his thoughts about the Digital Agenda and the Digital Single Market on the news source New Europe.

Europe, 9 May and eurozone on Bloggingportal.eu

Without any official My Europe Week campaign to inspire eurobloggers, all the latest 100 entries tagged 'myeurope' on Bloggingportal.eu are now new ones, published during the last days.

The blog posts deal with Europe Day 2011 events or thoughts about the past, present and future of the European Union. Some of the articles are remarkable, well worth your tweets etc.

The other Bloggingportal.eu theme I find necessary to highlight is the 'eurozone', where the innate lack of transparency and credibility of official efforts offers juicy gifts to those who want to undermine the common currency.



Ralf Grahn

European Council blogging: Part Four (11042011)

Previous round-ups of my blog entries were published in Part One, with articles posted 25 and 26 March, and Part Two, which took us from 27 to 29 March 2011.

Part Three corralled the blog posts published from 30 March to 1 April 2011.

My blog posts appear on four blogs and in three languages: on Grahnlaw (EN), Grahnblawg (SV), Eurooppaoikeus (FI) and Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (EN, FI, SV).

Part Four brings together the European Council and economic reform aims in the EU. The blog entries were published between 2 and 5 April 2011.


Describing and reforming the European Council

The procedures of European Council, the European Semester, the summit priorities and guidelines (if any), the Annual Growth Survey (AGS), the contributions by the Ecofin Council and the EPSCO Council, the synthesis report from the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council and thoughts about improving the governance, transparency and closeness of the European Council were discussed in a series of entries on Grahnlaw.

Grahnlaw: European Council: Economic policy reform priorities I (2 April 2011)

Grahnlaw: European Council: Economic policy reform priorities II (3 April 2011)

Grahnlaw: European Council: Economic policy reform priorities III (4 April 2011)

Grahnlaw: European Council: Economic policy reform priorities IV (5 April 2011)



Ralf Grahn



P.S. The five-language family of the Euros du Village in French, Gli Euros in Italian, Die Euros in German, The Euros in English and Los Euros in Spanish is a real fountain of European news and opinion, a treasure trove for interested EU citizens and language students alike.

European Council blogging: Part Three (11042011)

Previous round-ups of my blog entries were published in Part One, with articles posted 25 and 26 March, and Part Two, which took us from 27 to 29 March 2011.

The blog posts appear on four blogs and in three languages: on Grahnlaw (EN), Grahnblawg (SV), Eurooppaoikeus (FI) and Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (EN, FI, SV).

Part Three consists of the headlines of blog posts published from 30 March to 1 April 2011.


Economic policy

What did the spring summit say and do about economic policy and economic governance? The blog post looked at a few online comments.

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Commenting on European Council: Economic policy (30 March 2011)


European Stability Mechanism

This round-up concerned the new and permanent fund to prevent and to redress disruptions in the euro area. Here we took a tour of European press comments regarding the new bailout fund, intended to bring stability to the eurozone.

Grahnlaw: European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in media (30 March 2011)


Finnish rhapsody

A few remarks with regard to the Finnish rhapsody: Most documents are referenced referenced exactly enough to be found in other languages, blog posts and other online comments by others are in the original language and there is always the fall-back option to use Google translation.

The first post in Finnish is a summary of the economic policy decisions of the European Council and an outline of the next steps. It was followed by a presentation of the European Semester, including the preceding proposals from the Commission.

Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish): EU-maiden talouspolitiikka: Seuraavat vaiheet (31 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Finnish): EU:n talouspolitiikan eurooppalainen ohjausjakso (European Semester) (1 April 2011)



Ralf Grahn



P.S. European Union Law is a noteworthy blog about EU law by Vihar Georgiev, who also writes a mirror blog in Bulgarian. Real treasures in a field where few have the stamina to keep going.

European Council blogging: Part Two (10042011)

Previous round-up of my blog entries was published in Part One, with articles posted 25 and 26 March 2011.

The blog posts appear on four blogs and in three languages: on Grahnlaw (EN), Grahnblawg (SV), Eurooppaoikeus (FI) and Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (EN, FI, SV).

Part Two takes us from 27 to 29 March 2011.


European Council practices and in Euroblogs

After the previous batch followed a Swedish rhapsody, although most documents referenced can be found in other languages, blog posts by others are in the original language and there is always the fall-back option to use Google translation.

Observations about the lack of transparency were followed by a peek at translation issues and the available materials, followed by three round-ups of Euroblog posts in different languages about the European Council issues with regard to economic policies.

Grahnblawg (in Swedish): Europeiska rådets slutsatser: Konsensus och ogenomskinlighet (27 March 2011)

Grahnblawg (in Swedish): Europeiska rådet: Status och slutsatser på 23 språk (27 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Swedish): Europeiska rådet om ekonomin i Europabloggar I (28 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Swedish): Europeiska rådet om ekonomin i Europabloggar II (28 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Swedish): Europeiska rådet om ekonomin i Europabloggar III (28 March 2011)


Euro Plus Pact

We looked at media reports and reactions to the 24 and 25 March 2011 European Council adoption of the Euro Plus Pact, which joins the 17 eurozone countries with Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania, leaving only the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and the United Kingdom outside.

Grahnlaw: Euro Plus Pact in the media I (29 March 2011)

Grahnlaw: Euro Plus Pact in the media II (29 March 2011)



Ralf Grahn



P.S. The European Tribune offers both a daily review of international media and a community which discusses interesting topics concerning the EU, economics, finance etc. Lurk or join.

European Council blogging: Part One (10042011)

My latest collection of blog posts was presented on Grahnlaw (in English) a little more than two weeks ago: European Council blogging (24032011).

It is easier to find the relevant subject, if I offer myself and others an overview of the later blog entries on the economic policy theme at the spring European Council.

The blog posts appear on four blogs and in three languages: on Grahnlaw (EN), Grahnblawg (SV), Eurooppaoikeus (FI) and Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (EN, FI, SV).


Tripartite Social Summit

After an earlier introduction, a few blog entries presented the public statements of the participants in the Tripartite Social Summit, the social partners (employers, employees and EU institutions).

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Tripartite Social Summit: Unions and PES (25 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Reform camp leaders ahead of Tripartite Social Summit and European Council (25 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Tripartite Social Summit and European Council: EU views (25 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Tripartite Social Summit and European Council: Business views (25 March 2011)


Spring summit in a nutshell

After the spring European Council, I looked at the available links and materials, as well as the brief economic messages from the European leaders.

Grahnlaw: Spring European Council summary (26 March 2011)



Ralf Grahn




P.S. After an interesting ranking of top European media in French on Europe 27etc, ”Jamel de L'or” returned with a useful top ten of the European affairs media to follow in English (plus ten others, although the wrong link was offered for Grahnlaw).

EU Joint Employment Report (JER) heading for spring summit

Ahead of the EU's economic and social summit, the European Council 24 and 25 March 2011, we return to the EPSCO Council, where ministers for employment and social affairs adopted the following general conclusions:

3073rd Council meeting Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs: Employment and Social Policy; Brussels, 7 March 2011 (Council document 7360/11; 20 pages)


EPSCO on employment

On page 9 of the general conclusions the EPSCO Council put the Joint Employment Report (JER) into perspective, joint meaning Commission and Council:

The Council adopted the joint employment report (7396/11) along with the conclusions on it. The JER reviews the current employment situation in Europe and the implementation of the employment guidelines adopted in October 2010. This year, it is more forward-looking than in earlier years, additionally taking into account the early state of implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The page summarises the main findings of the JER and the principal EPSCO greetings to the spring European Council.


Joint Employment Report (JER)

The Joint Employment Report is part of the first European Semester. It adds flesh to the bones of the Annual Growth Survey (AGS), during the run-up to the spring European Council.

The latest JER version (document 7396/11; dated 8 March 2001, as adopted by the EPSCO Council, is more detailed than the general conclusions (26 pages). (A short while ago, five language versions had appeared on the Council website.)

The pages 2 to 5 of the Joint Employment Report are dedicated to the main messages. Despite the economic jargon and the abundance of good causes, concrete measures in the EU member states can make a difference for firms and jobseekers.

One of the purposes of the JER is to provide guidance for the final versions of the National Reform Programmes (NPR), due in April 2011, which aim to put the Europe 2020 Strategy (EU2020) into practice in the EU member states.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. On the Bloggingportal.eu Blog, you can follow and participate in the second day of live blogging from the EU Competitiveness Council and tweeting under #Eupilot by @europasionaria and @ronpatz in the Justus Lipsius Building in Brussels.

Favourite EU books – mission impossible?

Cosmetic Uprise – UK and the EU had hardly returned to the Euroblog scene, when Mia Välimäki asked for the moon with regard to the European Union - a good read that doesn’t preach or teach: EU literature (23 October 2010).

This seemingly simple question was provocative and difficult enough to elicit comments from Eurogoblin, Gawain Towler and Nosemonkey, some of the best known Eurobloggers.

The question is relevant, but the replies are far from conclusive, so join the discussion on Cosmetic Uprise if you have ideas.

Four favourites

The question felt intriguing enough, so I fell into the trap as well; stopped for a minute to search my memory and to pick a few favourites from my bookshelf. Obviously, the legal stuff came nowhere near what Mia was looking for. The books had to be of general interest, so I thought about what I had enjoyed reading. Here is my reply:

Mia V,

As others have said, you didn’t ask for much, did you? But you left a back door open, by not explicitly requiring books in English.

It would be hard to describe them as “thrilling” or not trying to “teach”, but here are a few I have enjoyed.

Gerhard Brunn: Die Europäische Einigung von 1945 bis heute (republished by http://www.bpb.de)

Marie-Thérèse Bitsch: Histoire de la construction européenne – De 1945 à nos jours (Editions Complexe)

Bino Olivi & Alessandro Giacone: L’Europe difficile (Folio histoire in French; original in Italian)

Luciano Angelino: Le forme dell’Europa – Spinelli o della federazione (Il melangolo)

The morning after

This following morning an additional book has surfaced in my mind (despite much legal text):

Daniele Pasquinucci: Progetti di Costitutizione Europea – Dall’Assamblea “ad hoc” alla Dichiarazione di Laeken (Edizioni Unicopli)

I then remember that this autobiography is worth reading:

Jean Monnet: Mémoires 1-2 (Le Livre de Poche)

All in all, if not EU the institution, then at least European integration has produced a few memorable books for me. Notably, those mentioned were all written in another language than English.

If I want something inspiring in English, my mind travels to the other shore of the Atlantic: the Declaration of Independence, the Philadelphia Convention, the Constitution of the United States of America, and especially:

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay: The Federalist Papers (various publishers)

It is hard to beat the Federalist’s mix of vision, courage and wisdom.




Ralf Grahn


P.S. Fondation Robert Schuman – Le centre de recherches sur l’Europe – describes itself in English as: the French think tank on Europe. The Schuman foundation publishes interesting reports and thoughts in French and English. If you haven’t done so, you should subscribe to its newsletter in French, English, Spanish or Polish.

Application of blogs to EU law: Jaanika Erne and Martinned

Here on Grahnlaw we have discussed various aspects of EU legislation, more or less related to the Report from the Commission:



27th annual report on monitoring the application of EU law (2009); Brussels 1.10.2010 COM(2010) 538 final (12 pages)


Here is a reminder of the related blog posts:



How much EU law is there? Smart regulation and impact assessments (13 October 2010)



Smart Regulation in the European Union (14 October 2010)



How much EU legislation in member state UK? Nosemonkey and House of Commons Library (15 October 2010)



Full-bodied EU acquis – the bouquet of EU English (16 October 2010)



Jaanika Erne



On her Ideas on Europe blog, Jaanika Erne has now done readers the service of writing a clear summary of what the Commission actually reported: 27th Annual Report on Monitoring the Application of EU Law (2009) (17 October 2010).

Erne's summary highlights the resolution of infringement procedures at different stages, as well as statistics on new petitions by policy area.



More generally Jaanika Erne’s blog is worth following for its treatment of issues of legal education (University of Tartu, Estonia and Europe), human rights in Europe (ECHR and ECtHR) and EU legislative procedures.



Martinned


If legal blogs are suspected of seriousness, Martinned does not walk away scot-free, but blogs have their distinct personalities, and Martinned has its personal style.



Martinned manages to squeeze This Week in Luxembourg (14 October 2010) into about one snappy page, but with helpful links for those who thirst for more.




Among the legal Euroblogs on Bloggingportal.eu, Martinned is one of the few active blogs in its important niche right now: the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

A distinct style and a clear niche – not a bad recipe for a blog.




Ralf Grahn

Blogging in tongues

The bridge between the ‘Biblical’ headline and the Day of Multilingual Blogging is finding the key to a richer life.



Day of Multilingual Blogging

At a deeper level the aims of the Day of Multilingual Blogging are to promote language education and to entice you to learn a foreign language and to explore other cultures. The practical objective is to motivate you to write a blog post this Sunday, 26 September 2010, in another language than your mother tongue.





Facebook

You can find more information on the Facebook page, and there you can link to your blog entry.



Twitter #babel



You can announce your contribution under the Twitter hashtag #babel, or you can post a short message if a full blog post feels too laborious.



Open 26 September 2010

The Day of Multilingual Blogging takes place on the Internet, and it is open to all netizens and languages. In real life, it is arranged by the European Commission representation in the United Kingdom. Therefore, most of the information is in English, so spreading the word in other languages is much appreciated.



Bloggingportal.eu



Bloggingportal.eu, the multilingual aggregator for EU related blogs, has joined the event, as have many bloggers in Europe and beyond. (See the confirmed and possible participants on the Facebook page.)

There are now 668 Euroblogs listed on growing Bloggingportal.eu. You can take a look at the stream of all new posts, or following the entries highlighted by the editors. You can also subscribe to the streams and the newsletters without cost.



By the way, Bloggingportal.eu needs a few more voluntary editors to tag posts according to subjects. Why not keep informed by reading about European affairs, improve your language skills daily and do something useful by joining the team of editors?



Grahnlaw and sister blogs



I have written about the event earlier. My latest Grahnlaw blog post on the subject appeared yesterday: ”Brush up your Shakespeare, Goethe, Molière, Dante, Cervantes or whoever: Day of Multilingual Blogging” (with links to entries with suggestions).



Today I have posted in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus “Kielillä bloggaamaan” and in Swedish on Grahnblawg “Tungomålsbloggande”, both posts with ‘blogging in tongues’ connotations.


Give it a shot - try blogging in tongues!




Ralf Grahn


P.S. Comments relevant to the topic discussed in each Grahnlaw blog post are most welcome. However, the number of spam comments keeps skyrocketing. This is the sad reason for comment moderation, so it may take a while before your valued comment appears.

It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. We can link to blogs and other sources in foreign languages and share different viewpoints with our readers, perhaps explaining the gist of the arguments.

Another opportunity is to invite comments in different languages, those we are able to read or by using machine translation to understand the essentials.

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.

“Romagate”: Out of sight, out of mind?

“Out of sight, out of mind” is a very human reaction to the appearance of Roma beggars and camps. It would be easiest, if the sight would kindly evaporate. However, we have to realise that this is not going to happen. Thus, we have to expect more from our governments, at local, regional, national and European level - and from ourselves.



Someone had to push the red button, was Basteiro’s comment (in Spanish) on Viviane Reding’s statement about the anti-Roma campaign and cover-up of the French government.


One step towards more constructive attitudes and sustainable solutions to seemingly intractable problems is the feeling of shame expressed by French Eurobloggers because of the plans and actions of the government in France.



Greg Henning on EU Weekly described statements emanating from the ruling majority as ‘stupidities’, but deplored the anti-European rhetoric as the worst fallout.



Cédric Puisney, on Un européen jamais content, asked if France is the new shame of Europe. Since the departure of François Mitterand and Jacques Delors, France in Europe is a botched affair.



Euros du Village spoke about the devastation brought by dishonour.



The French version of Presseurop is filled with European voices on France and the Roma question on the thematic page ‘Roms’.



According to Regards citoyens, France seems to be causing a split between the government and the nation, as well as breaking with its historical role in the European Union and Europe in general, by replacing the rule of law with intergovernmental power. If this is what the government wants, why not submit withdrawal from the European Union and the renouncement of EU citizenship to the electorate in a referendum?


Other European voices

I would also like to mention a few examples of European voices outside France.



J Peter Burgess takes a philosophical view of the interplay between discrimination, national and European citizenship, although it may take long for things to settle.



Daniel Mason on The Endless Track sees it as a good thing that the Commission is prepared to take a principled stand against one of the most powerful EU member states, but it should be done without referring to the Nazis. The EU should be working with the French and other governments to find a workable solution to the problem.



Charlemagne’s notebook offers advice to all sides: Don’t mention the war. However, none of the leaders at the European Council seems to have questioned the commission’s prerogative in investigating possible breaches of European law, and president Nicolas Sarkozy may yet annoy the chancellor Angela Merkel.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. The multilingual aggregator for EU related blogs keeps growing. There are now 669 Euroblogs listed on Bloggingportal.eu. You can take a look at the stream of all new posts, or follow the entries highlighted by the editors. You can also subscribe to the streams and the newsletters without cost.



Bloggingportal.eu needs a few more voluntary editors to tag posts according to subjects. Why not keep informed by reading about European affairs, improve your language skills and do something useful by joining the team of editors?

“Romagate” is everywhere, including Brussels and Belgium

From a human rights perspective, Stijn Smet on the Strasbourg Observers describes the “utterly unacceptable treatment of Roma by Sarkozy’s government”. The discriminatory practice violates both the freedom of movement within the EU and the prohibition of collective expulsions. The blog post links to the resolution by the European Parliament and the 5 August 2010 missive containing further instructions on the ‘evacuation’ of Roma camps.

However, the blog post does not stop there. It notes the existence of cases which fall under the radar screen of international media, but reveal a poisonous attitude towards Roma. One such case concerns the Brussels area, where there is now no place to station caravans legally. The blog entry describes attempts to prevent Roma from stationing their vans illegally, and it goes on to discuss to which extent states (including Belgium) have a positive obligation to provide spaces for the ‘Gypsy way of life’.

The blog post is an introduction to complex questions facing not only the European Union and the Council of Europe, but national, regional and local authorities all over Europe. This blog post needs to be read in European public administrations.




Ralf Grahn




P.S. The Day of Multilingual Blogging 26 September 2010is drawing closer. It is arranged by the European Commission Representation in the UK and joined by the multilingual blog aggregator Bloggingportal.eu as well as individual Eurobloggers.