Margot Wallström’s blogging testament

Margot Wallström, Commission Vice-President in charge of institutional relations and communication strategy, has written her final (?) blog post (15 December 2009).

The post was suitably headlined Blogging, and Wallström used it to sum up nearly five years as a blogger, as well as the emergence of a European blogosphere featuring individual blogs, multi-contributor blogs and newspaper blogs.

These blogs are thoughtful and do not slavishly follow either a pro or anti EU line, a fact which I find very valuable, Wallström concluded.

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At the time, Wallström was the only audible voice among the EU institutions to call for a readable (consolidated) version of the Lisbon Treaty, and her pugnacious promotion of women to fill top jobs did not go unnoticed (although officialdom was not always amused).

Margot Wallström brought a whiff of humanity and Nordic openness to the Commission and the EU institutions, and she created a bond between the European Union and (some of) its citizens.

A small, but significant sign: Margot was the only one as likely to be referred to by her first name as by her family name among engaged citizens of the European Union.

Thank you, Margot, and the best of luck!



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Find your own favourite blogs and posts on European affairs at multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. About a hundred updates daily offer you a variety of themes, viewpoints and languages among the 494 euroblogs listed.

EU: Anyone But Barroso keeps growing

While the political parties at European level have been sitting on their hands ahead of the European elections, leaving the European People’s Party (EPP) with the only official candidate for the Commission Presidency, active European’s have been voicing their opinions against a repeat performance by José Manuel Barroso.

In yesterday’s post Anyone But Barroso and EU 2.0, we mentioned the Financial Times column by Wolfgang Münchau: Like a fish, Europe is rotting from its head.


Now we notice Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström interviewed by Swedish Europaportalen: Wallström ratar omval av Barroso (Wallström rejects re-election of Barroso).



In line with her PES affiliation and feminist leanings, Wallström proposes former Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou from Greece.


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As usual, Jon Worth backs Pascal Lamy, but the Director-General of the WTO has just been confirmed for a new four year term.




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Among EPP grass roots I have yet to register the first spontaneous exclamation of joy on account of the nomination of Barroso, despite backing from the Congress.

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The EU heads of state or government deliberately cut out EU citizens from having a say. They have managed to alienate citizens from their union, but have they made a good or even a popular choice?


Ralf Grahn


P.S. Anyone But Barroso website