Citizens first: EU Council ignores the Treaty

In his blog post The schizophrenic Council, Ronny Patz saw the real face of the Council of the European Union as that of an EU institution

…that may have started to understand how 21st century PR works but that has not yet understood how 21st century democracy should look like.

Kudos to Reijo Kemppinen for presenting the Council view about restricted and privileged access to information.

However, Kemppinen's arguments miss the fundamental principles of equality of and equal attention to the citizens of the EU (Article 9 TEU), as well as the guiding values of a union 'in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen' (Article 1 TEU).

This is more than a bureaucratic slip.

The guiding principles are relevant to both the apples of access to documents and the oranges of running communication work of the EU Council (as well as the other EU institutions).

The fruits belong to the citizens of the European Union.



Ralf Grahn

Sharing informal EU Council meetings (Employment)

Let us look at how informal meetings of the EU Council inform and enlighten citizens, choosing the first example offered this year by the Hungarian presidency and relevant to the competitiveness challenges important to us all. This leads us to the nourishing gathering of employment ministers, relevant in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (EU2020).


Background

Beyond the official Council conclusions reflected on the Consilium website, we noted the informal Council meetings arranged by the presidencies of the Council of the European Union.

The Hungarian presidency programme acted as a GPS navigation device (Wikipedia) offering a clear picture of the main roads and destinations regarding EU efforts to improve competitiveness.

Rereading the first priority of the Strategic framework of the presidency programme 'Growth, jobs and social inclusion' offered me a general roadmap. The following sections of the Operational programme gave more detail about the main challenges for the different Council configurations with regard to European competitiveness: 5. Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE; from page 32), 6. Competitiveness (COMP; from page 37) and 7. Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO; from page 41).


HU news and events

If we want to follow the most recent activities, we can study the homepage of the Hungarian presidency, or we can move on to News and events, where we find press releases ordered chronologically, with the events of today on top.


HU presidency calendar

This time we are interested in information and materials regarding informal meetings of the three Council formations most directly concerned with competitiveness challenges (EU2020): TTE, COMP and EPSCO.

With these limitations, through the Hungarian presidency calendar January – June 2011 we find three relevant informal Council meetings and one just around the corner:

16-18 January EPSCO (employment)
7-8 February TTE (transport)
11-13 April COMP (research and development; industry)
2-3 May TTE (energy)

Nowadays, the formal Council meetings are arranged in Brussels or Luxembourg, but the informal meetings offer the rotating presidencies opportunities to act as hosts to ministers, officials and journalists, as well as to make the presidency visible to the home crowd.


Employment ministers

I decided to look for information based on the specific dates of the informal Council gatherings. There must be more to life than meetings, so the item to turn up on top 'Gala dinner at the Museum of Fine Arts', shared the culinary delights on 17 January 2011 with us EU citizens, in detail equal to an EU legislative act.

If you scroll deep enough, you find that the ministers and state secretaries for Employment were going to discuss in the framework of two workshops: youth employment, and employment friendly growth-recovery and more and better jobs.

We are able to share in on one related document: the Menu of the gala dinner.

After the event, we find the press release 'EU ministers discuss employment in Gödöllö', much less detailed than the culinary exposition.

The summary offered some generalities about the Europe 2020 goal of raising the employment level to 75 per cent, the Commission's flagship initiative Youth in Motion, contributions by the other members of the presidency trio, the use of the European Social Fund (ESF) and other structural funds to improve employment, as well as discussions with the social partners and non-governmental organisations.

The menu excepted, I found no illuminating documents, with a bearing on the workshops or employment issues generally, shared through the web pages of the informal meeting of employment ministers.

Those who remember the Hungarian media law wonder if this is balanced enough reporting.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Joe Litobarski has littered his basket with comments about blogging versus Facebook, opening and shutting down his new Facebook comment system within a few hours due to critical comments. Interesting questions for all and sundry.

An energetic and innovative European Council?

The European Council has a rendezvous with energy and innovation 4 February 2011 in Brussels, but can we expect the institution to become energetic and innovative? The meeting web page only reiterates the information contained in the annotated draft agenda, dated 7 December 2010, without offering added wisdom (Council document 17163/10).

Before the European Council, the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) and the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC) are going to meet, both Monday 31 January 2011.

Let us take a look at the quality of the advance information for the coordinating GAC meeting.


GAC background

The background note prepared by the Council press office for the General Affairs Council 31 January 2011 offers a summary on the first page and more detail on the following three pages.

The draft conclusions for the European Council are kept under wraps, but the texts tells us something about the items to be discussed.

Much real world interest hangs on the eurozone, but here little is on offer.

However, if the Council had wanted to be really service minded, it could have provided journalists and other interested people with direct and clear references and links to perhaps ten or twelve of the relevant documents.

Some things are better done once centrally, than hundreds of times in a dispersed manner.


Hungarian Council presidency

The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union offers a brief page with the main items of the General Affairs Council.

In addition, the GAC page links to related news and pages, such as a description of the GAC and the priorities of the Hungarian presidency, the recent meeting of ministers and state secretaries for EU affairs, the launch of the first ”European Semester” for synchronised economic policy coordination, the development of European Roma policy and the strategy for the Danube Region (with further links leading to the communication from the Commission COM(2010) 715 final). Of course, it might be a good idea to link to the Eur-Lex page with all the available language versions.

There is a link to a GAC agenda dated 27 January 2011 and to the Council background note I mentioned earlier.

On the whole, the Hungarian presidency presents the advance information in a structured and fairly detailed manner, although using generic texts. Until now the General Affairs Council has been treated as a step-child, so this is still pretty good in comparison. Better presentation and preparation at the GAC stage should improve communication (including reception) at the European Council meeting, although energetic and innovative may be a lot to ask for.



Ralf Grahn


P.S. Do you think that there are differences between how Members of the European Parliament and domestic politicians use the web? Fleishman-Hillard's second European Parliament Digital Trends Survey reports on MEPs. You can discuss #epdigitrends on Twitter.

P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my blogs. The internal market and the Europe 2020 strategy (flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. We can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn, too.

EU General Affairs Council has taken note – So have we

We have dealt with some aspects at least loosely related to the General Affairs Council (GAC).

We started by looking at the advance information about the meeting: EU General Affairs Council 22 November 2010: What do we know? (22 November 2010). - Not much and scant hope of major improvement is the short answer.

The following blog post revealed the current limits of machine translation from Finnish into other European languages. The theme could be described as “institutionalism with a human face”, and the entry commended the work of pioneering web editors and media teams in the EU institutions who have grasped the meaning of “social” in social media. These “pockets of excellence” show the way towards interaction to other actors in the public sector. The post also noted some of the trailblazers among government ministers who participated in the GAC or FAC meeting: Ihmiskasvoinen Euroopan unioni? Verkkotiedottajat ja #some (23 November 2010).

The third post based its reflections on the GAC conclusions:

Press release, 3047th Council meeting, General Affairs, Brussels, 22 November 2010 (document 16572/10)

This time the post was in Swedish, and it asked if the member states have understood that the European Union policies and internal actions are not ”foreign affairs” (any more). Why are many of the member states still represented by their foreign minister? Why are many ministers for Europe still housed in the foreign ministry (and as junior ministers), instead of in the prime minister's office?: EU: Har rådet för allmänna frågor fel medlemmar? (24 November 2010).

Potentially the General Affairs Council could be important, through coordination of the work of all other Council configurations as well as preparation and follow-up of the meetings of the European Council.

In practice, we do not have to exaggerate much to say that the GAC repeatedly “took note of a note”.

We have duly taken note.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. I am happy to see that the Spanish version Europa451.es and the Italian Europa451.it of the collective blog are alive and kicking as Euroblogs, and they keep up the @Europa451 presence on Twitter as well.

EU Competitiveness Council 11 to 12 October 2010: Background materials

Yesterday we looked at the tragicomical story of the language regime necessary for the EU patent (formerly the Community patent).

Under the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union there is advance information about the Competitiveness Council in Luxembourg Monday and Tuesday (11-12 October 2010):



The agenda



A more detailed background note with links to relevant documents



A timetable for public deliberations and public debates, as well as the items



A link to the audiovisual service to follow the public discussions through video streaming



A clear press release from the Commission, with links to additional documents



I evaluated these materials on Grahnblawg in Swedish earlier today. My impression was fairly positive in comparison with Council standards generally. In addition I looked at advance information from Sweden, Denmark and Finland.



Ann Mettler



If you are interested in the wider picture of innovation in Europe, I recommend the blog post by Ann Mettler, of the Lisbon Council: Informal Competitiveness Council: Innovation (Not) @ Work (8 October 2010).




Ralf Grahn

Note on European Council’s agenda and background note (17 June 2010)

Yesterday, the last day before the 17 June 2010 European Council, we were happy to announce the publication of the provisional agenda drafted by president Herman Van Rompuy (document EUCO 12/10), a background note from the Council’s press office and Van Rompuy’s invitation letter to the EU heads of state or government.


The road to prosperity or destitution for 500 million Europeans is expressed in a few brief words on one agenda item:

3. A new European strategy for jobs and growth
- Finalising and implementing the Europe 2020 Strategy
- Enhancing economic governance
- Regulating financial markets

Council’s background note



The background note from the Council’s press office briefly describes the issues at hand:

A new European strategy for jobs and growth

The European Council is due to finalise Europe 2020, the EU's new strategy for jobs and smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and start concentrating on implementation.

The strategy will help Europe recover from the crisis and come out stronger, both internally and at the international level, by boosting competitiveness, productivity, growth potential, social cohesion and economic convergence. The new strategy responds to the challenge of reorienting policies away from crisis management towards the introduction of medium- to longer-term reforms that promote growth and ensure the sustainability of public finances.

The European Council is expected to confirm five EU headline targets which will constitute shared objectives guiding the action of Member States and the Union as regards
- the promotion of employment ;
- the improvement of the conditions for innovation, research and development;
- meeting of the EU’s climate change and energy objectives;
- the improvement of education levels; and
- the promotion of social inclusion, in particular through the reduction of poverty.

The European Council is expected to agree on the quantification of the education and social inclusion/poverty indicators and it will endorse the integrated guidelines for the economic and employment policies.

Member States will have to act to implement these policies at their level, as well as to identify the main bottlenecks to growth and indicate how they intend to tackle them in their National Reform Programmes.

The President of the Task Force on economic governance, Herman Van Rompuy, will present a progress report to the European Council. On this basis, the European Council will discuss its orientations on how to further enhance the coordination of Member States’ economic policies, in particular as regards budgetary and broader macroeconomic surveillance.

Finally the European Council is expected to set orientations for further work on strengthening the regulation and supervision of financial markets.

Comment


The publication of the clearly written official background note from the European Council is a positive development.

However, no concrete proposals, detailed reasons or links to relevant documents are on offer.

This means that the European Council’s standards of governance and transparency still reflect its origins as an intimate fireside chat, not the role of the most important official institution of a union of half a billion people.

It seems necessary for media and active individuals to try to fill at least parts of the official communication near-vacuum, by producing their own background notes and in depth articles.

Ahead of the European Council, many of the Grahnlaw blog entries (headlines on the right) in June have looked at issues pertaining to the EU’s new economic strategy, but now there is only time to fill a few of the remaining gaps left by the official advance communication.




Ralf Grahn

European Council takes up information challenge

Finally the background notes and other posts on this blog are getting some healthy competition from the European Council, on the final day before the 17 June 2010 meeting.

Here is a roundup of the official communication effort:



President Herman Van Rompuy has now drafted the itemised one page provisional agenda (document EUCO 12/10).



The press office has also published a three page background note, which briefly explains the context and expected outcomes on main issues.



President Van Rompuy’s invitation letter to the EU heads of state or government has also been published. On one and a half pages it sets the tone for the meeting, mentioning the main items.

The second sentence of the concluding paragraph is interesting, without being overly transparent:

After our morning meeting, we will break up for an extended working lunch. I will first briefly outline to you some of my ideas on what our forthcoming meetings should achieve, in order to optimise their preparation. I will then report to you on progress regarding the work of the Task Force, with a view already to set first orientations on strengthened budgetary discipline and on macroeconomic surveillance and to finalise our conclusions on this part.

Feel free to peruse this advance information from the European Council.

Naturally, you are also invited to read i.a. the 73 blog entries posted on Grahnlaw in May and the 60 posts published this far during June (headlines on the right).




Ralf Grahn

EU Council opinion on stability programme of Cyprus

After looking at the Cypriot government’s update and the Commission’s assessment, we turn to the Council of the European Union.



Ecofin conclusions



The Council (Economic and Financial Affairs; Ecofin) on 8 June 2010 presented the following conclusions (document 10689/10; on page 8):

Cyprus: stability programme

The Council adopted an opinion, as required by the EU's stability and growth pact, on an update by Cyprus of its stability programme.

Stability programmes, which are unique to member states having the euro as their currency, are aimed at ensuring sound government finances as a means of strengthening the conditions for price stability and for sustainable growth.

Council opinion


As we see, the Ecofin conclusions did not refer or link to the document in question, so instead of doing it exactly once, everyone interested in the matter is invited to do his or her own research, until the opinion is found:



Council opinion on the updated stability programme of Cyprus 2009-2013 (document 10839/10)



Economic situation

The Council began its examination of the updated stability programme of Cyprus with a brief description of the economic situation (page 3):

In 2009 economic activity contracted by 1.7%. This is the first time Cyprus has experienced negative growth in the last thirty-five years. Weak domestic demand and an adverse external environment weighed strongly on growth. In particular, high household indebtedness together with tight lending conditions, a worsening labour market outlook and negative confidence effects led to a decline in private consumption. In parallel, investment recorded a strong correction, amidst a fall in foreign demand for housing, low capacity utilisation and the restructuring of corporate balance sheets. Government consumption was the only demand component supporting economic activity, partly due to the 1½% of GDP stimulus package implemented in line with the EERP. In addition to these discretionary measures, the contraction of economic activity, the fading out of the asset boom and a less tax-rich growth pattern has put public finances under significant pressure. As a result, government finances turned into a deficit of 6.1% of GDP from a surplus of 0.9% of GDP in 2008. The crisis has also highlighted the accumulation of a high external imbalance, which reflects not only the low private sector net savings but also a deterioration of the net position of general government and competitiveness losses. A weak domestic demand and a sluggish external recovery are expected to weigh on recovery prospects. GDP growth is forecast to shrink further, although to a lesser extent, in 2010 and to recover mildly in 2011. Therefore, in the medium term, Cyprus is facing the challenge of enhancing growth, against the backdrop of a frail global economic recovery, while addressing the existing macroeconomic imbalances through maintaining prudent fiscal policies. In the long term, the country is confronted with the need to strengthen the sustainability of public finances, in view of an ageing population.

Council opinion

After a detailed discussion, the Council of the European Union invited Cyprus to (page 14):

(i) reduce the 2010 deficit to below 6% of GDP by reinforcing the consolidation measures, notably in case macroeconomic developments proves less favourable than the programme scenario, and take timely action to define a more expenditure-driven consolidation strategy; seize opportunities beyond the announced fiscal effort to accelerate fiscal consolidation and to ensure a swift reduction of the gross debt ratio back below the reference value;

(ii) implement, as envisaged, an effective multi-annual budgetary framework in order to ensure the adherence to the budgetary targets and to firmly contain expenditure over the medium -term;

(iii) improve the long-term sustainability of public finances by implementing reform measures to control pension and health care expenditure in order to curb the projected increase in age-related expenditure.

Comment

When we wrote about the previous round of Council opinions on stability and convergence programmes, we remarked that more than a month passed between the decision and its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

Luckily, the opinion is available for those who care to search, although a clear reference or link in the Ecofin conclusions would have saved time and energy.

We looked favourably at the Commission’s web pages on the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) in our previous blog entry, but noticed that they had not been updated with the fairly recent Council opinion.



The latest Council opinion on Cyprus can be found through the news page of the Eurogroup. (Cyprus is a eurozone country, but the opinion is issued by the Council as a whole.)



There are no updates from 2010 concerning Cyprus or the eleven other new member states on the informative Ecofin web page Stability and convergence programmes II.



Stability and convergence programmes I, the corresponding page for old member states comes out no better.

Considering the dramatic events and continuing drama surrounding the European sovereign debt crisis, readily available and instantly updated information would seem a necessity for the Council.




Ralf Grahn

EU Council information assessment early 2010

The Lisbon Treaty was supposed to bring about a European Union “in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen”.

Almost two months into the new year 2010, several reasons have contributed to the modest results this far.



The second Barroso Commission was finally appointed from 10 February 2010. Before that the old Commission was in a caretaker role, with no politically responsible Commission taking “appropriate initiatives” to promote the general interest. Hence, the Council and the European Parliament have been running on empty.



The European Council and the Council have met, but mainly informally, with rudimentary agendas, practically no documentation and with meagre oral summaries by the president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy or by the rotating Spanish presidency after the meetings.



The Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union has hardly excelled at presenting agendas and documentation in a user-friendly and well-arranged manner, leading to a step backwards from the level attained during the Swedish presidency.



Spain has highlighted its desire to set in motion a stronger, more united and more efficient Europe to respond to citizens’ concerns.

The Spanish government could start by upgrading its communication effort for the remaining four months.




Ralf Grahn

EU consumer protection: Product safety notifications can save lives

In the policy area of consumer protection, there is now a consolidated version, updated per 1 January 2010, of the EU’s General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) 2001/95:



DIRECTIVE 2001/95/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 3 December 2001 on general product safety; (Text with EEA relevance); 2001L0095


Serious risks

Article 12 of Directive 2001/95/EC established a Community Rapid Information System ‘RAPEX’ for the rapid exchange of information between the Member States and the Commission on measures and action taken in relation to products posing a serious risk to the health and safety of consumers.


Non-serious risks

The notification procedure established under Article 11 of Directive 2001/95/EC provides for an exchange of information between the Member States and the Commission on measures adopted in relation to products posing a non-serious risk to the health and safety of consumers.


Information and notifications

The European Commission has now replaced its Decision on product safety information and notifications by new guidelines:






COMMISSION DECISION of 16 December 2009 laying down guidelines for the management of the Community Rapid Information System ‘RAPEX’ established under Article 12 and of the notification procedure established under Article 11 of Directive 2001/95/EC (the General Product Safety Directive); published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 26.1.2010 L 22/1


Consumer protection is an area where the European Union can literally help to save life and limb.




Ralf Grahn





P.S. Christian Engström, Pirate MEP, challenges established interests and business models by presenting the views of the Pirate Party on reforming the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). The blog posts are in Swedish or English.


Christian Engström’s blog is listed with more than 500 great Euroblogs on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, policies, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

Now is the one year anniversary of Bloggingportal.eu. During this first year the number of blogs almost doubled.

By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

Near Nada: EU General Affairs Council 25 January 2010

The quantity and quality of information ahead of the General Affairs Council meeting Monday 25 January 2010 is derisory.

The agenda tells us that the ministers will be occupied between 10:00 and 15:00 hearing and discussing one agenda item, the Spanish presidency programme.



Although I am convinced that the governments of the EU member states have studied the programme carefully, nobody was gracious enough to add a link to the document in this public information, so I will do it:

The Programme for the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 1 January – 30 June 2010



In a few paragraphs, the one page background note runs through some of the headline level activities during the first six months of this year, without adding anything of interest or value for those who follow EU affairs.

No additional items, supporting documents, links – nada.

Still, let us savour the last paragraph before the obligatory press conference:

For the Union to enhance its global role and influence it needs to foster close links with its citizens and build their support and involvement. To this end, the Spanish Presidency aims to strengthen the rights, civil liberties and security of Europe's citizens and promote real equality between men and women.

I fully support the noble aim of fostering close links with the citizens of the EU and building our support and involvement.

How about decent advance information – for a start?




Ralf Grahn





P.S. The UK is a heavyweight among EU member states, and Charlemagne’s notebook (The Economist) offers a gateway to some shades of important British thought about European integration.

Charlemagne’s notebook is listed with more than 500 great Euroblogs on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, policies, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

Spain’s EU Council presidency website: New treaty – old communications (Updated)

After Sweden with the last presidency of the Council of the European Union, mainly under the Treaty of Nice, Spain’s presidency website – the first with the Lisbon Treaty in force from day one – paradoxically feels like a throwback to old times: European Digital Agenda in 2010 on first day of Spanish EU Council presidency (1 January 2010).

There was a summary of the Spanish work programme, but no full programme. The 18 month programme of the presidency trio Spain, Belgium and Hungary was not easy to find, and it was still presented as a draft. Links and languages did not match.



The structure of the Spanish presidency website did not make for easy, intuitive navigation. The Spanish government vaunts its European engagement, but there were no signs of interactive engagement with the citizens of the European Union.

New generation treaty – old style communications?

Yes, this is how it looks on the first two days of the Spanish presidency, but much can be improved during six months, if the will is there.




Update 2 January 2010 about 19:45 EET: I have noticed that the Spanish EU Council presidency website has drawn critical comment from at least the following eurobloggers, on different grounds: The European Citizen, Julien Frisch and Jon Worth.

Hopefully, the Spanish government takes the viewpoints seriously.


Update 4 January 2010 about 22:55 EET: Julien Frisch has been following the story, with five updates, since Mr Bean appeared on one of the webpages of the Spanish presidency. - Hopefully the Spanish government starts to take the functionality, navigability and contents of the site seriously.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Read The European Citizen and other great euroblogs listed on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, our common “village well” for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs.



While you’re at it, why not pop over to read Grahnlaw’s sister blogs, Grahnblawg in Swedish and Eurooppaoikeus in Finnish?

EU Network and Information Security (NIS) resolution officially published

In the blog post EU Network and Information Security (NIS) (27 December 2009) we presented the Council resolution and detailed preparatory work by the Commission, mentioning that the annexed resolution would be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), but that in the meantime we followed the Council document.


OJEU


Adhering to the principle to use the most authentic and official sources available, we can now announce the official publication of the Council resolution on NIS, which forms the tip of the iceberg:



COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 18 December 2009 on a collaborative European approach to Network and Information Security, published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 29.12.2009 C 321/1.



NIS reasons


At the same time, we can repeat some of the reasons for the importance of NIS action noted by the Council:

II. NOTING THAT:

1. Given the importance of electronic communications, infrastructures and services as a basis of economic and social activity, Network and Information Security (NIS) contributes to important values and objectives in society, such as democracy, privacy, economic growth, the free flow of ideas, and economic and political stability;

2. Information and communication technology systems, infrastructures and services, including the Internet, play a vital role for society, and their disruption has the potential to cause huge economic damage, underlining the importance of measures to increase protection and resilience aimed at ensuring continuation of critical services;

3. Security incidents risk undermining user confidence. While severe disruptions of networks and information systems could have a major economic and social impact, everyday problems and nuisances also risk eroding public confidence in technology, networks and services;

4. The threat landscape is evolving and growing, which increases the need to provide end-users, businesses and governments with electronic communications infrastructures that are robust and resilient by default and to identify the right incentives for the providers to do so in a timely manner;

5. There is a need to enhance and embed Network and Information Security in all policy areas and sectors of society, and to address the challenge of ensuring sufficient skills via both national and European actions and raising awareness among users of information and communication technology (ICT);

6. The completion and functioning of the Internal Market will require that network owners and service providers cooperate across borders, given that possible disruptive events in one Member State may also affect other Member States and the EU as a whole;

7. New usage patterns, such as cloud computing and software as a service, put additional emphasis on the importance of Network and Information Security;

8. Network and Information Security serves the objective of all parties, in all sectors of society, to be able to trust the information systems, therefore a cross-sector and cross-border approach is needed;

9. With the increasing use of ICT in society, Network and Information Security is a prerequisite for the reliable, safe and secure delivery of public services, such as e- Government;

10. ENISA has the potential to build on the important role it already plays in Network and Information Security.

Ralf Grahn



P.S. Read Coulisses de Bruxelles, by Jean Quatremer, and other great euroblogs listed on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, our common “village well” for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs.

EU Network and Information Security (NIS)

Have we humans always got our priorities right? If Santa Claus gets a parking ticket for his reindeer, it is front page news around the globe. But without information and communication technologies (ICT) in working order, even that news item would go nowhere. Actually, very little would function in our modern world without secure networks and information.



The 2987th Council meeting, in the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) configuration from 17 to 18 December 2009 (document 17456/09), adopted a resolution on network and information security (NIS), a brief mention on page 22:

Network and Information Security

The Council adopted a resolution on a collaborative European approach on network and information security (15841/09).

The resolution responds to the Commission's communication on this subject (8375/09), whose objective is to develop an EU policy on the protection of critical information infrastructure.

Secure information infrastructure got a three line mention, when the Swedish Council presidency summed up the results of the meeting for general consumption.

I am not out to criticise the brief mentions: They are geared towards the interests of the public, and most of the time we seem to look for more immediate pleasures, leaving critical, but “boring” work to specialists.



Resolution details



Council document 15841/09 Council Resolution on collaborative European approach on Network and Information Security – Adoption (dated 8 December 2009; 11 pages) recalls the establishment of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA; Regulation 1007/2008 amending Regulation 460/2004) and initiatives to protect Critical Information Infrastructures (CIIs).

The annexed resolution will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), but in the meantime we follow the Council document.

Among other things the Council underlines that (page 6):
A high level of Network and Information Security in the EU is needed in order to support:

a. the freedoms and rights of citizens, including the right to privacy;

b. an efficient society in terms of quality in information handling;

c. the profitability and growth of trade and industry;

d. citizens’ and organizations’ trust in information handling and ICT systems.

The resolution stresses the need to modernise and reinforce ENISA, and it invites the EU member states to undertake continued efforts to improve network and information security, including by creating Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs).

The Commission is invited to support the efforts of the member states, for instance by evaluation and a possible NIS strategy.

ENISA is encouraged to work with all stakeholders, and these to put their best foot forward.


Commission communication



The basic underlying document was the Commissions Communication on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection "Protecting Europe from large scale cyber-attacks and disruptions: enhancing preparedness, security and resilience"; Brussels, 30.3.2009 COM(2009) 149 final (12 pages).



The Communication was accompanied by the Staff Working Document: Summary of impact assessment; Brussels 30.3.2009 SEC(2009) 400 (8 pages).




The full length Impact assessment SEC(2009) 399 came in three parts (addenda): Part 1 (Council document 8375/09 ADD 1; 149 pages), Part 2 (ADD 2; 133 pages) and Part 3 (ADD 3; 130 pages).



Preparation and hierarchy


We are able to see that a few vague sentences in the press releases from the Council and the Swedish presidency are just the tip of the iceberg.

The resolution itself is more detailed, although the phrases still resemble indistinct wishes for constructive action, as often is the case when we deal with cooperation and coordination between sovereign states.

Even when there is need for urgent action, herding 27 member states is a slow and laborious task, often spanning several Council presidencies.

The base of the iceberg is the preparatory work by the Commission, carefully researched and documented, often voluminous. Nosemonkey often stresses how incredibly dull the European Union is.


Few of us have cared to follow this far. We just expect our computers, networks and European Union to function, so that we can see if Santa wins the appeal against his parking ticket. We are all too human.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. Get to know Jon Worth’s Euroblog and other great European blogs listed on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, our common “village well” for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs.

After dinner European Council 10 December 2009

More work through the night to agree on the European Union’s climate measures was the message conveyed by the late press conference of Swedish prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Commission president José Manuel Barroso after the European Council dinner Thursday evening. The press conference video is available on the web site of the Swedish Council presidency as well.

On the video streaming page, I saw two promising links:

• List of reference documents submitted to the European Council
• Latest press releases

Joy was clearly premature.

The only reference document listed for this European Council meeting, the first under the Lisbon Treaty and the new Rules of Procedure, was the annotated draft agenda dated 9 November 2009.

The latest press release was the one informing us that president Herman Van Rompuy would take part in the dinner (dated 9 December 2009).


In other words, EU citizens are not supposed to know what goes in, or what goes on.

At the end, vague conclusions are offered, but the Council formations, like wholly owned subsidiaries, start taking exact decisions based on the often minute guidelines, directions and priorities received.

The citizens are out of the loop.

The European Council is now a formal institution in a union of 500 million people, but despite the Lisbon Treaty principles of openness, representative democracy and closeness to citizens, its standards of governance fall short of the most obscure municipal board in my country.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! Growing, multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates 494 euroblogs, representing both national viewpoints and pan-European angles.

You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future. Please, do.

Blogs on EU affairs and European themes, by associations, networks, businesses or individuals, can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility, credibility and readers by proposing a new blog!

European Council agenda 10-11 December 2009

The previous blog post European Council 10 to 11 December 2009 looked at how the principles of openness and representative democracy are applied to the summits under the Lisbon Treaty and the new Rules of Procedure.



Ahead of the meeting, the web page European Council of the Swedish presidency published a press release Summit invitations sent out (7 December 2009).


One member per state



Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s invitation letter informs us that he will still chair the meeting, although the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on 1 December 2009.

“In line with the provisions of the new Treaty on the composition of the European Council, the meeting will take place in the format of Heads of State or Government only”, Reinfeldt told the member state governments.

But all foreign ministers are not necessarily happy to be relegated to “if needed” status, as foreseen by Article 15(2) and (3) TEU.

In Finland (and perhaps other countries) were the division of powers between the head of government and the head of state is unclear, the Lisbon Treaty has highlighted domestic constitutional shortcomings.


Pre-meeting info



The Swedish Presidency’s last summit (9 December 2009) contains the schedule from Thursday afternoon until the concluding press conference on Friday.



Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt speaks about Climate change on a webcast (9 December 2009).



The provisional agenda, dated yesterday and published today, is an absolute bare-bones list with six substantive issues in 17 words:

1. Adoption of the provisional agenda

2. Institutional issues
3. Economic, financial and employment situation
4. Stockholm Programme
5. Copenhagen Conference on climate change
6. Enlargement
7. External Relations

8. Any Other Business

Brevity is the soul of wit?


The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has informed us that he joins the dinner of the participants Thursday evening, and why he does not preside the body he became president for.

Otherwise I found nothing on the Council’s web pages conducive to the enlightenment of EU citizens with regard to the European Council meeting.

Naturally, earlier versions of some basic documents have been published, but nothing has been done to facilitate the gathering of updated information.

After dealing with openness and representative democracy, we can now add the issue of communication to the list of structural and practical faults under the Lisbon Treaty and the new Rules of Procedure.

This leads to another question: Is there better public information available out there, than what we have seen this far?



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! Growing, multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates 494 euroblogs, representing both national viewpoints and pan-European angles.

You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future. Please, do.

Blogs on EU affairs and European themes, by associations, networks, businesses or individuals, can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility, credibility and readers by proposing a new blog!

Final ratification of EU Lisbon Treaty ─ finally

Czech Happenings report that prime minister Jan Fischer deposited the 27th and last ratification instrument of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty on Friday with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome: Czech PM brings Lisbon treaty to Rome ending ratification process (13 November 2009).



Now that all the ratification instruments are in, the Lisbon Treaty enters into force on 1 December 2009, not that it has been in doubt since president Vaclav Klaus finally signed it. But it would have been nice if the Council of the European Union, just this once, had updated its web page on Lisbon Treaty ratifications in real time. As it is, there is still a gaping hole for the ratification date of the Czech Republic.


Haphazard information ─ need for improvement

Admittedly, the shift from the Treaty of Nice to the Treaty of Lisbon is somewhat messy, but the EU Council could have done a bit more to inform the public about the legal and political aspects of various issues requiring implementation.

The legality of the current Commission continuing in office ─ in a caretaker capacity ─ from 1 November 2009 has been questioned in mainstream media as well as in blogs. Shouldn’t clarifying answers be given by the Council?

Is it clear that the (as yet unknown) new high representative can take over as vice-president of the Commission on 1 December 2009, given the need for hearings by the European Parliament?

Wouldn’t more visible and comprehensive reporting about all the other implementation issues regarding the Lisbon Treaty be in order?

The nomination procedures for the president-chairman of the European Council and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy cum vice-president of the Commission are a superb illustration of how intergovernmental cooperation works (so supporters of “freely cooperating, sovereign nation states” have forfeited their right to criticise).



However, those in favour of EU level democracy, or even just a more democratic European Union, can ask with Jean-Guy Giraud on Regards-citoyens if the first steps to be taken under the Lisbon Treaty have to violate the basic principles of a union “in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen”; in Bienvenue à M./MME ‘PPCC’, Président/E du Conseil européen (13 November 2009).



In the meanwhile, you can vote at Fondation Robert Schuman on some of the persons rumoured to be candidates to become president of the European Council. A short while ago 8,733 had participated, despite the official black-out; hardly an indication of a total lack of interest among EU citizens for our common future.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. Are EU citizens worth a better European Union? Read and discuss on the Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu.

Ministers who Euroblog

One of the Euroblog categories on Bloggingportal.eu is Governments, where we find the following actively updated ministerial blogs: Carl Bildt (SE), Bendt Bendtsen, David Miliband, EU Minister’s Blog (Cecilia Malmström), Alex Stubb blogi (FI) and Turkov čas-opis.


Carl Bildt

Carl Bildt, centre-right foreign minister of Sweden (former party leader and prime minister), is an active blogger of long standing. Since he became foreign minister, he has blogged frequently about his activities in Swedish, on Alla Dessa Dagar, where he describes his daily travels and travails almost live. One or two short daily posts seem to be the norm, and he attracts a fair amount of comment. Bildt’s blog has recorded nearly five and a half million hits.



Bendt Bendtsen

Bendt Bendtsen is a Danish former leader of the Conservative People’s Party and minister of trade and industry until 2008. Since the June 2009 European elections, Bendtsen is a member of the European Parliament, where he sits in the political group of the European People’s Party (EPP). As such, he would belong to the Bloggingportal.eu category MEPs / MPs / Political parties.



By the looks of it, Bendtsen posts daily updates, practically. However, there seems to be a contradiction. If you click on the URL to Bendtsen’s blog, his latest personal posts seem to be from 13 and 6 June 2008. If you cklick on the Bendt Bendtsen name, you arrive at web pages frequently updated, but they contain press releases from the Danish Conservative Party, by different people in the party leadership. – This is something for the Bloggingportal.eu editors to look into.



David Miliband

UK foreign secretary David Miliband (Labour) has been in the headlines lately, because he criticised the Conservative Party’s defection from the EPP group and their dubious alliances within the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament, because a European mainstream speech is such a rarity if it comes from a leading British politician, and because a number of EU member states see him as the prime choice for high representative, especially if the post is going to be filled by a socialist or social democrat.



David Miliband’s blog is more official than personal, hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The style of the blog is to present short posts on topical questions.


Cecilia Malmström


The Swedish minister for European affairs and former liberal MEP Cecilia Malmström keeps the EU Minister’s Blog as part of the Swedish government’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. The blog is but one part of Sweden’s total presidency information effort, the best to date.


Alex Stubb


Alex Stubb served as a MEP, when he was called on to become foreign minister of Finland. The new office did not stop Stubb from blogging. Alex Stubb blogi receives about one daily update in Finnish, mainly on the work and meetings, and the posts receive a fair amount of comments from his readers.



Ziga Turk


As far as I can see, professor Ziga Turk is member of the Reflection group on the European Union, headed by Felipe Gonzalez, and he is a former government minister for growth in Slovenia. He writes the Turkov čas-opis blog, which is updated with some frequency. – However, he seems to be in the wrong category on Bloggingportal.eu at the moment.




Ralf Grahn

European Parliament: ECR & EFD groups online

About two weeks ago, we remarked on the lack of web existence for the two right wing nationalist groups in the European Parliament: the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD).



We then returned to the anti-EU ECR and the Europhobe EFD a few days later, but both political groups were still leading a nonline existence. There were still no traces of the ECR on 2 October 2009.

There have now been improvements.

***

Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD)



The Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EDF) has now managed to produce a web site under construction, with a link to a list of its 32 members and what should have been a link to its political platform (but it did not work).

There was nothing about the activities and initiatives of the EDF.

The link from the box with Political groups on the European Parliament’s web site still does not work.

***

European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR)



The European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) has now produced a professional web site.

The contents are still slim, but approaching those of the other political groups in the European Parliament.

The link from the European Parliament’s main page does work.

The ECR pages exist only in English, whereas the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) offers a wide selection of languages, and the centre-left S&D group and the liberal ALDE have a selection of the most widely spoken languages.

***

Three months after the political groups were established, they have made their appearance on the web, although the presence of the EFD Group is almost theoretical and the profile of the ECR Group is monolingual.

The undoubted residual attraction of the 19th and 20th century main ideology, nationalism, should encourage further presentational improvements.

The groups have a total of 86 members, almost 12 per cent of the seats in the European Parliament (736), so there is surely wider European interest in what they are doing.

The EDF and the ECR should not let matters rest there.

***

EP political groups



By the way, here is a link to the overview web page of the European Parliament on the political groups. (It is undated, and instead of the “7th parliamentary term”, the editors could have used years, which every reader understands.)



Ralf Grahn

Daniel Hannan froths about secondary issues

The headline of anti-EU UK Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan’s Telgraph blog post states categorically:

“EU breaks its own rules to funnel money into Irish referendum”



What the assertion boils down to is unverified information that lawyers in the Commission and Council legal services have expressed reservations, which is not the same thing.

Are these doubts official positions, or individual musings? We have no way to tell.

***

Hannan continues by wondering why “Eurocrats” wants the Lisbon Treaty so badly.

He twists the facts. Hannan knows full well that all 27 EU member states agreed on the Lisbon Treaty in order to improve how the European Union works. He is aware of the fact that 26 national parliaments have approved the amending treaty, in most cases by large, qualified majorities and in a number of member states by two houses of parliament. The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Lisbon Treaty.

Of course they want the Irish to approve the Lisbon Treaty, and Ireland is the only EU country where approval is still needed.

Hannan should ask the member states if they oppose information from the Commission to the EU citizens about the Treaty of Lisbon or other EU matters.

***


If the information is correct, there is nothing to complain about.

If it is false, Hannan and everyone else is invited to show the errors.

Is Daniel Hannan afraid of informing the public about the Lisbon Treaty?

Daniel Hannan, the EU Commission and I share a common trait: We are not Irish. But the Lisbon Treaty is an issue of European interest.

Hannan clearly wants to incite the Irish to vote No in the Lisbon 2009 referendum (and to do the dirty work for the UK Conservatives), but he wants to restrict the free flow of information from the Commission (more objective information at that).

Double standards?



Ralf Grahn