It is time to remember the annual 26 September European Day of Languages, now into its 10th edition. Language learning is at the heart of the objectives, so become inspired.
The European Day of Languages is arranged jointly by the Council of Europe and the European Union, as well as by a plethora of organisers in the member states.
Why not make a good resolution by starting a daily check of the multilingual aggregator of euroblogs, Bloggingportal.eu, with 853 blogs already listed? A fun and profitable way to learn languages while getting to know Europe from new angles.
Today, 2011 CE could also be your Day of Multilingual Blogging.
Ralf Grahn
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Monday, 26 September 2011
Friday, 8 October 2010
Why is Europe falling behind? Look at EU patent
The governments of the EU member states meet in the Council of the European Union, Monday to Tuesday (11 to 12 October 2010) in Luxembourg.
Yes, even when the Council presidency is in Belgian hands (Brussels), the October Council meetings are held in the Grand Duchy.
Internal market
The Council configuration known as Competitiveness (Internal Market, Industry, Research and Space) has the following internal market items on its agenda:
You can follow press conferences and public deliberations by video streaming, courtesy of the audiovisual services of the Council.
EU Patent
If you want to understand why Europe is falling behind, you can study the neverending(?) history of the future Community Patent, nowadays the EU Patent, with the Commission’s latest proposal for translation arrangements (press release 1 July 2010, IP/10/870) and Frequently Asked Questions (MEMO/10/291).
The official Commission communication is:
Proposal for a Council Regulation (EU) on the translation arrangements for the European Union patent; Brussels, 30.6.2010 COM(2010) 350 final; consultation procedure2010/0198 (CNS)
Around the time of the informal meeting of competitiveness ministers (internal market) on 29 to 30 September, EurActiv reported on the efforts of the Belgian EU Council presidency to find a compromise in the battle about the language regime for the EU patent, and suggested that the deadlock may lead to the launch of enhanced cooperation between a group of member states. Nikki Tate in the Financial Times essentially had the same story.
Europolitics presents the state of play (= blockade) between the member states (7 October 2010), as does Simon Taylor in the European Voice (7 October 2010).
Legal: Unanimity for language regime
In the Lisbon Treaty the member states were able to agree on the ordinary legislative procedure for European intellectual property rights, but unable to include the language requirements, which need unanimity.
The member states failed then and will probably fail again, leaving European businesses with ten times the costs of patent protection in the USA.
The relevant provision is Article 118 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, with the language regime in the second paragraph (OJEU 30.3.2010 C 83/96):
Sweden
Ewa Björling, who continues as trade minister in Fredrik Reinfeldt’s new Swedish government appointed 5 October 2010, says that Sweden supports the three-language regime proposed by the Commission (English, German, French).
On the same page there is a link to the customary annotated agenda (kommenterad dagordning; in doc form), posted yesterday. The document states that two member states are opposed to the Commission proposal, but diplomatically it does not name Italy and Spain.
If the Council fails to reach unanimity, Sweden is willing to initiate enhanced cooperation for a working language regime.
Denmark
The Europe Committee of the Danish Parliament (Folketingets Europaudvalg) offers a memorandum on the issues for the Competitiveness Council (with the EU patent language regime from page 8).
It recalls the Commission’s original proposal (for a then Community patent) in 2000 and the negotiation history, and notes the unanimity requirement in Article 118(2) TFEU. A unanimous decision on the language arrangements is needed for the political agreement on the rest of European patent protection, negotiated during the Swedish EU Council presidency, to enter into force.
Provisionally, Denmark supports a possible compromise based on a restricted language regime, but the memorandum notes that the Council presidency and the Commission have indicated starting the process towards enhanced cooperation in case of failure.
Unanimity
The EU patent is an example of ‘freely cooperating, sovereign nation states’, and European businesses continue to foot the bill until the deadlock is broken.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. I have decided to give my “domestic” Grahnlaw blog a new twist. Instead of, or at least in addition to cross-posting EU entries in Finnish from Eurooppaoikeus, I intend to blog in Finnish, Swedish and English about entrepreneurship, work and expats in Finland, giving the blog a distinct identity.
Yes, even when the Council presidency is in Belgian hands (Brussels), the October Council meetings are held in the Grand Duchy.
Internal market
The Council configuration known as Competitiveness (Internal Market, Industry, Research and Space) has the following internal market items on its agenda:
– Proposal for a Council Regulation on the translation arrangements for the European Union patent
– Political orientation
Public deliberation
– Functioning of the internal market
(a) Communication from the Commission: Single market delivering smart sustainable and inclusive economic growth
– Presentation by the Commission
– Exchange of views
Public debate
(b) Report from the Commission on monitoring the retail market
– Progress report
You can follow press conferences and public deliberations by video streaming, courtesy of the audiovisual services of the Council.
EU Patent
If you want to understand why Europe is falling behind, you can study the neverending(?) history of the future Community Patent, nowadays the EU Patent, with the Commission’s latest proposal for translation arrangements (press release 1 July 2010, IP/10/870) and Frequently Asked Questions (MEMO/10/291).
The official Commission communication is:
Proposal for a Council Regulation (EU) on the translation arrangements for the European Union patent; Brussels, 30.6.2010 COM(2010) 350 final; consultation procedure2010/0198 (CNS)
Around the time of the informal meeting of competitiveness ministers (internal market) on 29 to 30 September, EurActiv reported on the efforts of the Belgian EU Council presidency to find a compromise in the battle about the language regime for the EU patent, and suggested that the deadlock may lead to the launch of enhanced cooperation between a group of member states. Nikki Tate in the Financial Times essentially had the same story.
Europolitics presents the state of play (= blockade) between the member states (7 October 2010), as does Simon Taylor in the European Voice (7 October 2010).
Legal: Unanimity for language regime
In the Lisbon Treaty the member states were able to agree on the ordinary legislative procedure for European intellectual property rights, but unable to include the language requirements, which need unanimity.
The member states failed then and will probably fail again, leaving European businesses with ten times the costs of patent protection in the USA.
The relevant provision is Article 118 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, with the language regime in the second paragraph (OJEU 30.3.2010 C 83/96):
Article 118 TFEU
In the context of the establishment and functioning of the internal market, the European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, shall establish measures for the creation of European intellectual property rights to provide uniform protection of intellectual property rights throughout the Union and for the setting up of centralised Union-wide authorisation, coordination and supervision arrangements.
The Council, acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure, shall by means of regulations establish language arrangements for the European intellectual property rights. The Council shall act unanimously after consulting the European Parliament.
Sweden
Ewa Björling, who continues as trade minister in Fredrik Reinfeldt’s new Swedish government appointed 5 October 2010, says that Sweden supports the three-language regime proposed by the Commission (English, German, French).
On the same page there is a link to the customary annotated agenda (kommenterad dagordning; in doc form), posted yesterday. The document states that two member states are opposed to the Commission proposal, but diplomatically it does not name Italy and Spain.
If the Council fails to reach unanimity, Sweden is willing to initiate enhanced cooperation for a working language regime.
Denmark
The Europe Committee of the Danish Parliament (Folketingets Europaudvalg) offers a memorandum on the issues for the Competitiveness Council (with the EU patent language regime from page 8).
It recalls the Commission’s original proposal (for a then Community patent) in 2000 and the negotiation history, and notes the unanimity requirement in Article 118(2) TFEU. A unanimous decision on the language arrangements is needed for the political agreement on the rest of European patent protection, negotiated during the Swedish EU Council presidency, to enter into force.
Provisionally, Denmark supports a possible compromise based on a restricted language regime, but the memorandum notes that the Council presidency and the Commission have indicated starting the process towards enhanced cooperation in case of failure.
Unanimity
The EU patent is an example of ‘freely cooperating, sovereign nation states’, and European businesses continue to foot the bill until the deadlock is broken.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. I have decided to give my “domestic” Grahnlaw blog a new twist. Instead of, or at least in addition to cross-posting EU entries in Finnish from Eurooppaoikeus, I intend to blog in Finnish, Swedish and English about entrepreneurship, work and expats in Finland, giving the blog a distinct identity.
Sunday, 26 September 2010
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.
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.
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.
Friday, 10 September 2010
Euroblogosphere: Who discovers Portugal?
The current population of Portugal is 10.6 million, but this small country was at the vanguard of European overseas exploration (Wikipedia).
About 260 million speakers of Portuguese are the legacy of these intrepid explorers and the colonial empire their discoveries led to. Portuguese is the fifth most spoken language in the world (Source: Wikipedia).
The former Portuguese prime minister José Manuel Durão Barroso is president of the European Commission since November 2004 (Wikipedia), now in his second term.
The current update of the EU Treaties is called the Treaty of Lisbon. Portugal participates in all EU policies, without opt-outs.
The present economic difficulties make Portugal one of the countries to follow with special care within the European Union and the Eurozone.
However, Portugal is quiet on the Euroblog front.
Among the 662 EU related blogs on the multilingual blog aggregator Bloggingportal.eu, the only blog in Portuguese to have published during the last seven days seems to be the internationally oriented Tratados, by Bruno Oliveira Martins.
I also made sporadic attempts to find Portuguese Euroblogs through other means, but came up short.
How should I put it?
Is it the time for the Portuguese to discover Europe, or social media, or should European online media discover Portugal?
Ralf Grahn
About 260 million speakers of Portuguese are the legacy of these intrepid explorers and the colonial empire their discoveries led to. Portuguese is the fifth most spoken language in the world (Source: Wikipedia).
The former Portuguese prime minister José Manuel Durão Barroso is president of the European Commission since November 2004 (Wikipedia), now in his second term.
The current update of the EU Treaties is called the Treaty of Lisbon. Portugal participates in all EU policies, without opt-outs.
The present economic difficulties make Portugal one of the countries to follow with special care within the European Union and the Eurozone.
However, Portugal is quiet on the Euroblog front.
Among the 662 EU related blogs on the multilingual blog aggregator Bloggingportal.eu, the only blog in Portuguese to have published during the last seven days seems to be the internationally oriented Tratados, by Bruno Oliveira Martins.
I also made sporadic attempts to find Portuguese Euroblogs through other means, but came up short.
How should I put it?
Is it the time for the Portuguese to discover Europe, or social media, or should European online media discover Portugal?
Ralf Grahn
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Language barriers challenge online campaigning in Europe
The grass root campaigners for a PES Primary we are following have to shovel away without explicit endorsement from the Party of European Socialists (PES) or the formidable resources of its member parties at national level. Lacking a seal of approval from various party headquarters, they also have to overcome general attitude problems among party faithful who wait for a cue. The civil society actors have to surpass inertia and hostility.
In this blog post we look at another critical issue for pan-EU online campaigns: languages.
While an EU-wide campaign can use social media to pass mental barriers and cross national borders, languages are an obstacle and a challenge for civil society actors wanting to get their message across. Babel is a fact of life in Europe.
Without great organisations on their side, the civil society campaigners have to work themselves, build functioning networks through social media, and rely on other volunteers to spread the word in different languages and to drum up support.
The Campaign for a PES Primary has managed to get a helping hand from some Eurobloggers and socialist networks.
The French socialist collective 27roses.eu calls for people to join the Facebook group, as well as to act within their own party at national level.
In German, Martin on Europaeum finds that a primary would bring both the Party of European Socialists and the election to the European Parliament more publicity. Thus it would strengthen the EP.
In Romanian, Dan Luca has posted on the Casa Europei Cluj-Napoca (Europe House) blog, outlining a timetable for an EU-wide primary election for the candidate for the post of Commission President.
Francesca Barca wrote on Europa451.it, contrasting the lack of courage in the 2009 EP election with the level of energy the activists are aiming for in 2014.
I described the campaign on my Swedish blog, Grahnblawg, especially mentioning the Nordic social democratic parties and the competing Europarties being challenged by the PES activists.
On my Finnish blog, Eurooppaoikeus, I told the main things about the PES campaign and how to join it.
The Social Democratic Party in Finland will contribute to the future decision by the Party of European Socialists, but at this stage in Finland as elsewhere, the main question is to reach as many party activists in as many languages as possible, everywhere in the European Union.
The Campaign for a PES Primary is certainly working hard. Desmond O’Toole has just added new posts to the campaign blog, highlighting my entries on attitude obstacles and the presentation in Swedish as well as an entry that the French progressive think tank Eurocité has picked up the 27roses.eu article.
Overcoming linguistic diversity requires much work, but one small step at the time the online campaign is becoming known among socialists, social democrats and labour party members in the European Union.
New members have joined the Facebook campaign page, bringing the number of supporters to 935. The Twitter campaign page @PESPrimary is updated regularly, so social media are in play.
Still we may wonder if the networking efforts of an EU-wide social media campaign can really lift off before the big mainstream media players all over Europe start showing serious interest in this innovative and potentially transformative campaign.
The experiences of this campaign will be relevant for the civil society organisations and networks keen to test the citizens' initiative, when the implementing legislation is in place.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Comments relevant to the topic discussed in each Grahnlaw blog post are most welcome. However, the number of spam comments has skyrocketed. 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. 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.
Antonia on the Euonym blog (Talking about the EU) tells us that the European Commission in the UK arranges a Day of Multilingual Blogging on 26 September 2010, and the UK Representation has been joined by the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu and individual Eurobloggers. Join the event page on Facebook, spread the word through social media and personal contacts, begin preparing your blog posts and start learning a new language.
In this blog post we look at another critical issue for pan-EU online campaigns: languages.
While an EU-wide campaign can use social media to pass mental barriers and cross national borders, languages are an obstacle and a challenge for civil society actors wanting to get their message across. Babel is a fact of life in Europe.
Without great organisations on their side, the civil society campaigners have to work themselves, build functioning networks through social media, and rely on other volunteers to spread the word in different languages and to drum up support.
The Campaign for a PES Primary has managed to get a helping hand from some Eurobloggers and socialist networks.
The French socialist collective 27roses.eu calls for people to join the Facebook group, as well as to act within their own party at national level.
In German, Martin on Europaeum finds that a primary would bring both the Party of European Socialists and the election to the European Parliament more publicity. Thus it would strengthen the EP.
In Romanian, Dan Luca has posted on the Casa Europei Cluj-Napoca (Europe House) blog, outlining a timetable for an EU-wide primary election for the candidate for the post of Commission President.
Francesca Barca wrote on Europa451.it, contrasting the lack of courage in the 2009 EP election with the level of energy the activists are aiming for in 2014.
I described the campaign on my Swedish blog, Grahnblawg, especially mentioning the Nordic social democratic parties and the competing Europarties being challenged by the PES activists.
On my Finnish blog, Eurooppaoikeus, I told the main things about the PES campaign and how to join it.
The Social Democratic Party in Finland will contribute to the future decision by the Party of European Socialists, but at this stage in Finland as elsewhere, the main question is to reach as many party activists in as many languages as possible, everywhere in the European Union.
The Campaign for a PES Primary is certainly working hard. Desmond O’Toole has just added new posts to the campaign blog, highlighting my entries on attitude obstacles and the presentation in Swedish as well as an entry that the French progressive think tank Eurocité has picked up the 27roses.eu article.
Overcoming linguistic diversity requires much work, but one small step at the time the online campaign is becoming known among socialists, social democrats and labour party members in the European Union.
New members have joined the Facebook campaign page, bringing the number of supporters to 935. The Twitter campaign page @PESPrimary is updated regularly, so social media are in play.
Still we may wonder if the networking efforts of an EU-wide social media campaign can really lift off before the big mainstream media players all over Europe start showing serious interest in this innovative and potentially transformative campaign.
The experiences of this campaign will be relevant for the civil society organisations and networks keen to test the citizens' initiative, when the implementing legislation is in place.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Comments relevant to the topic discussed in each Grahnlaw blog post are most welcome. However, the number of spam comments has skyrocketed. 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. 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.
Antonia on the Euonym blog (Talking about the EU) tells us that the European Commission in the UK arranges a Day of Multilingual Blogging on 26 September 2010, and the UK Representation has been joined by the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu and individual Eurobloggers. Join the event page on Facebook, spread the word through social media and personal contacts, begin preparing your blog posts and start learning a new language.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Bloggingportal.eu and social media experiences in Grahnlaw post number 1,800
There is no magic in numbers, but it often feels comfortable to choose a certain date or an even number for a milestone. Say, the better life (learning Italian, keeping fit ... whatever) we start on 1 September – every year. Or, an even number of blog entries as an excuse to think aloud.
If active participants have called the Euroblogosphere self-referential, what can be more so than writing about your own blog, with no more justification than this being entry number 1,800 on Grahnlaw?
Temporarily, Grahnlaw has been centred more on Euroblogging and social media, than on issues of EU law, politics and policies. Online media offer unique opportunities for participation across linguistic and national borders, building European online public spaces. The explicit multilingual comment policy is one of new features on Grahnlaw.
Bloggingportal.eu
It has been a joy to see the continued growth of the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu, which has now reached 651 blogs related to EU affairs (Euroblogs).
The editors’ choices on the front page of Bloggingportal.eu (and in the daily email newsletter), as well as the weekly roundup on the Bloggingportal.eu blog (and in the weekly newsletter), are valuable, but they reveal only the tip of the iceberg.
The continually updated stream of new posts is significantly down right now, due to the holiday season, but I expect Eurobloggers to return with zest, after rest, and the published posts are worth reading wherever you are.
Linguistic diversity? Virtually invisible interests?
This is only a snapshot at an arbitrary moment, but there is an astonishing difference between the size of the language communities in the European Union (European Economic Area) and blogger activity in the 25 languages on offer:
Among the 50 latest posts, there were 2 in Danish, 2 in German, 24 in English, 2 in Spanish, 3 in French, 1 in Norwegian, 1 in Polish, 1 in Portuguese and 14 in Swedish, when I checked.
Are there any conclusions you would like to draw?
Should bloggers engaged in European affairs take up the challenge to place their language (among the 16 missing from this sample) on the virtual map of the Euroblogosphere?
Are some linguistic communities under-represented, even if there was a post or two?
The European Union does not have exclusive competence in many policy areas, but it is active in more than thirty broad fields, with shared powers or in a complementary capacity, and a plethora of more narrow policy issues.
The EU is the frame of reference for many policy debates at national, regional and local level (although more seldom discussed in those terms locally).
There are huge numbers of European interest groups and associated national bodies, businesses, labour market organisations, EU and government officials, policy experts, consultants, lobbyists, EU projects, Europarties and their political foundations, politicians at all levels, NGOs, journalists, researchers, teachers, students, engaged citizens, and networks, who need to communicate with the outside world.
In my view, the Euroblogosphere needs more professional blogging on real issues, but online visibility is a key to success and interaction between different levels of governance is a necessity for various interests, although regular blogging is hard work.
Yesterday, Anne Christensen described on the Waltzing Matilda blog how the Commission and the other institutions of the European Union are upgrading their presence on social networks. This lays the foundations for a gradual shift from an information mindset to participation. Some day more politicians and officials may become courageous enough to venture onto outside forums as well, or at least start following exchanges on them.
If even institutional dinosaurs are on the move, shouldn’t nimble mammals be running ahead at high speed?
Naturally, the need for “hard information” is going nowhere. I need the Official Journal of the European Union, news and documents from the Council and the European Parliament, as well as other EU agencies and bodies, both for my blogging activities and in my work as a lawyer, interested in cross-border issues.
Online media offer valuable news and comments.
Volunteer work by editorial team
In principle, there is a chance to look for blog posts thematically (Topics button), but Bloggingportal.eu needs more voluntary editors to tag all new posts (and highlight the best ones).
The system of available tags is far from perfect, but with added programming skills on the editorial team, some improvements might be possible, even on the current platform.
Why not apply to join the team of editors?
Willingness to do grunt work (tagging), an eye for journalistic merit and original writing (not only among mainstream media), linguistic skills and programming abilities are much appreciated. Editorial independence is a valued asset, so people working for the EU institutions, or with pronounced commercial or organisational interests may not fit the bill to become editors, even if their blogs are welcome. Do not apply with the hidden agenda to promote your own posts: This is off limits.
Central and Eastern European languages are still under-represented among editors, as they are among Euroblogs.
The editors form a loose network, with little decision-making structures and even less executing powers, but the team is also a community which discusses common editorial issues, and the team spirit facilitates occasional personal contacts regarding other matters between individual editors.
Own experiences on other social media
I have participated actively on Twitter for a few months, and I use it to announce when I have published a new blog post, but especially to follow what others in the Euroblogosphere are saying, to retweet interesting entries or article links and sometimes to engage in discussions within the 140 character limit per tweet.
Almost daily, I find someone new with an interest in European affairs to follow, and it is usually a pleasure to find that somebody wants to follow my tweets.
Tags like #EU, #euroblog, #eulaw, #eurozone, #EP (European Parliament), #europarl, #EuTrioBe (Council presidency), #bkaeb (Better Know A EuroBlog recommendation), #EU2020 (for the economic reform strategy) and @bloggingportal help to keep me updated on the Euroblogosphere and media, when the tweets on the Home page keep disappearing at an increasing speed.
I follow a number of Euroblogs and media on my own blog - jestingly the “canonised version” although constantly developing - but also more widely through Google Reader and Bloglines feeds, as well as email subscriptions.
A few days ago I joined Facebook, after dithering for long, so I have only taken my first tentative steps. While getting the feel for the place, I have had time to add only a small number of friends, but I have been pleased to notice that already some blog readers, as well as other virtual and real life friends and acquaintances have taken the initiative.
It will be interesting to see how the Facebook experience pans out in the long run.
Incidentally, I found that there are great numbers of European and EU related groups (even if you look only in English), which could start blogging and join Bloggingportal.eu (if they have not done it by now).
How do you relate to European online media and social media networks, and how do you evaluate your own experiences?
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The Grahnlaw blog invites comments relevant to the topics discussed, but the number and the variety of spam comments seems to be increasing steadily. This is the sad reason for comment moderation, so it may take a while before your pertinent comment appears. Sometimes technical problems occur, such as yesterday when I received nine copies by the same author of the same comment, of which one copy was published.
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. 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.
If active participants have called the Euroblogosphere self-referential, what can be more so than writing about your own blog, with no more justification than this being entry number 1,800 on Grahnlaw?
Temporarily, Grahnlaw has been centred more on Euroblogging and social media, than on issues of EU law, politics and policies. Online media offer unique opportunities for participation across linguistic and national borders, building European online public spaces. The explicit multilingual comment policy is one of new features on Grahnlaw.
Bloggingportal.eu
It has been a joy to see the continued growth of the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu, which has now reached 651 blogs related to EU affairs (Euroblogs).
The editors’ choices on the front page of Bloggingportal.eu (and in the daily email newsletter), as well as the weekly roundup on the Bloggingportal.eu blog (and in the weekly newsletter), are valuable, but they reveal only the tip of the iceberg.
The continually updated stream of new posts is significantly down right now, due to the holiday season, but I expect Eurobloggers to return with zest, after rest, and the published posts are worth reading wherever you are.
Linguistic diversity? Virtually invisible interests?
This is only a snapshot at an arbitrary moment, but there is an astonishing difference between the size of the language communities in the European Union (European Economic Area) and blogger activity in the 25 languages on offer:
Among the 50 latest posts, there were 2 in Danish, 2 in German, 24 in English, 2 in Spanish, 3 in French, 1 in Norwegian, 1 in Polish, 1 in Portuguese and 14 in Swedish, when I checked.
Are there any conclusions you would like to draw?
Should bloggers engaged in European affairs take up the challenge to place their language (among the 16 missing from this sample) on the virtual map of the Euroblogosphere?
Are some linguistic communities under-represented, even if there was a post or two?
The European Union does not have exclusive competence in many policy areas, but it is active in more than thirty broad fields, with shared powers or in a complementary capacity, and a plethora of more narrow policy issues.
The EU is the frame of reference for many policy debates at national, regional and local level (although more seldom discussed in those terms locally).
There are huge numbers of European interest groups and associated national bodies, businesses, labour market organisations, EU and government officials, policy experts, consultants, lobbyists, EU projects, Europarties and their political foundations, politicians at all levels, NGOs, journalists, researchers, teachers, students, engaged citizens, and networks, who need to communicate with the outside world.
In my view, the Euroblogosphere needs more professional blogging on real issues, but online visibility is a key to success and interaction between different levels of governance is a necessity for various interests, although regular blogging is hard work.
Yesterday, Anne Christensen described on the Waltzing Matilda blog how the Commission and the other institutions of the European Union are upgrading their presence on social networks. This lays the foundations for a gradual shift from an information mindset to participation. Some day more politicians and officials may become courageous enough to venture onto outside forums as well, or at least start following exchanges on them.
If even institutional dinosaurs are on the move, shouldn’t nimble mammals be running ahead at high speed?
Naturally, the need for “hard information” is going nowhere. I need the Official Journal of the European Union, news and documents from the Council and the European Parliament, as well as other EU agencies and bodies, both for my blogging activities and in my work as a lawyer, interested in cross-border issues.
Online media offer valuable news and comments.
Volunteer work by editorial team
In principle, there is a chance to look for blog posts thematically (Topics button), but Bloggingportal.eu needs more voluntary editors to tag all new posts (and highlight the best ones).
The system of available tags is far from perfect, but with added programming skills on the editorial team, some improvements might be possible, even on the current platform.
Why not apply to join the team of editors?
Willingness to do grunt work (tagging), an eye for journalistic merit and original writing (not only among mainstream media), linguistic skills and programming abilities are much appreciated. Editorial independence is a valued asset, so people working for the EU institutions, or with pronounced commercial or organisational interests may not fit the bill to become editors, even if their blogs are welcome. Do not apply with the hidden agenda to promote your own posts: This is off limits.
Central and Eastern European languages are still under-represented among editors, as they are among Euroblogs.
The editors form a loose network, with little decision-making structures and even less executing powers, but the team is also a community which discusses common editorial issues, and the team spirit facilitates occasional personal contacts regarding other matters between individual editors.
Own experiences on other social media
I have participated actively on Twitter for a few months, and I use it to announce when I have published a new blog post, but especially to follow what others in the Euroblogosphere are saying, to retweet interesting entries or article links and sometimes to engage in discussions within the 140 character limit per tweet.
Almost daily, I find someone new with an interest in European affairs to follow, and it is usually a pleasure to find that somebody wants to follow my tweets.
Tags like #EU, #euroblog, #eulaw, #eurozone, #EP (European Parliament), #europarl, #EuTrioBe (Council presidency), #bkaeb (Better Know A EuroBlog recommendation), #EU2020 (for the economic reform strategy) and @bloggingportal help to keep me updated on the Euroblogosphere and media, when the tweets on the Home page keep disappearing at an increasing speed.
I follow a number of Euroblogs and media on my own blog - jestingly the “canonised version” although constantly developing - but also more widely through Google Reader and Bloglines feeds, as well as email subscriptions.
A few days ago I joined Facebook, after dithering for long, so I have only taken my first tentative steps. While getting the feel for the place, I have had time to add only a small number of friends, but I have been pleased to notice that already some blog readers, as well as other virtual and real life friends and acquaintances have taken the initiative.
It will be interesting to see how the Facebook experience pans out in the long run.
Incidentally, I found that there are great numbers of European and EU related groups (even if you look only in English), which could start blogging and join Bloggingportal.eu (if they have not done it by now).
How do you relate to European online media and social media networks, and how do you evaluate your own experiences?
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The Grahnlaw blog invites comments relevant to the topics discussed, but the number and the variety of spam comments seems to be increasing steadily. This is the sad reason for comment moderation, so it may take a while before your pertinent comment appears. Sometimes technical problems occur, such as yesterday when I received nine copies by the same author of the same comment, of which one copy was published.
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. 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.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Euroblogs facing Babel: Inclusive and exclusive approaches
If the European Union is the common theme, even our shared destiny, should discussions be confined to separate national or linguistic forums?
A short while ago I decided to experiment with a multilingual comment policy on Grahnlaw. After a few days, comments in four languages and minor adjustments it reads like this:
Inclusive approaches
Babel is a fact of life in Europe. The European Union has 23 official languages, as well as a host of regional and minority languages. Wider Europe offers even more linguistic diversity.
Each blog has to make a basic choice: the language it is written in.
Further, every Euroblogger among the 635 aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu (and beyond) can reflect on how inclusive or exclusive it wants to be in relation to other languages and public spheres.
Mathew Lowry has blogged about building bridges to create a European online public space.
Inspired by Mathew Lowry and Grahnlaw, The European Citizen decided to open up his Euroblogging and to try to reach out a bit more across the blogosphere(s). He is opening up his blog to comments in different languages, and he will use machine translation to help with responding. He will also reach out by commenting [in English] on blogs in other languages, although he is not sure how this will be received.
In fact, reception for comments in other languages can vary. I experimented by posting a comment in English on an Arte blog (French), but the moderation team quickly banished it on boilerplate grounds that the comment was outside the subject of the blog entry or against editorial policy. As we see, exclusionary policies are still de rigeur in some places.
I have tried to run separate, but related blogs in Finnish and Swedish, such as Eurooppaoikeus and Grahnblawg. However, they have offered little in the way of informed readers and interaction. At the same time, it is hard work to present even a fraction of EU politics and events in a few policy areas in a single language, English, the closest thing we have to a lingua franca.
I respect the valiant individual Eurobloggers who run bilingual blogs. Here are a few examples:
Vihar Georgiev writes the European Union Law blog in English and in Bulgarian, with frequent short updates in parallel.
Another parallel blogger is Europasionaria, in English and in French. She has also added a Google Translate gadget to her pages in order to facilitate communication.
Greg Henning’s EU Weekly contains blog entries in both English and/or French.
Martin on Europaeum alternates between entries in German and English.
Pirate MEP Christian Engström blogs mainly in Swedish, but occasionally in English.
Spanish is the main language of Eva Peña’s Eva en Europa, but she has posted in Catalan as well, and her latest entry was in English.
Including nationals - excluding others
Cédric Puisney aka Un Européen jamais content offers a contrary view to the inclusionary efforts, at least if English is used as a bridging language. He deplores bloggers abandoning their mother tongue to blog in English. He sees linguistic poverty, the threat of impoverished debate and the abandonment of the average EU citizen (citoyen lambda européen).
According to Wikipedia, 51 per cent of the EU population speaks English, followed by German (32%) and French (26%). English is more widely spoken and understood worldwide than the other European languages. (About 20 per cent of Grahnlaw’s readers come from North America.)
We have seen a few examples of bridging policies of inclusion, as well as exclusionary reactions and arguments (Blogs Arte, Cédric Puisney).
Should we confine our Euroblogs and blog discussions to separate national or linguistic forums for Citizen Lambda, or should we do our best to lower barriers between Eurobloggers and to promote pan-European interaction?
Ralf Grahn
A short while ago I decided to experiment with a multilingual comment policy on Grahnlaw. After a few days, comments in four languages and minor adjustments it reads like this:
In order to facilitate interaction in the Euroblogosphere, I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.
Inclusive approaches
Babel is a fact of life in Europe. The European Union has 23 official languages, as well as a host of regional and minority languages. Wider Europe offers even more linguistic diversity.
Each blog has to make a basic choice: the language it is written in.
Further, every Euroblogger among the 635 aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu (and beyond) can reflect on how inclusive or exclusive it wants to be in relation to other languages and public spheres.
Mathew Lowry has blogged about building bridges to create a European online public space.
Inspired by Mathew Lowry and Grahnlaw, The European Citizen decided to open up his Euroblogging and to try to reach out a bit more across the blogosphere(s). He is opening up his blog to comments in different languages, and he will use machine translation to help with responding. He will also reach out by commenting [in English] on blogs in other languages, although he is not sure how this will be received.
In fact, reception for comments in other languages can vary. I experimented by posting a comment in English on an Arte blog (French), but the moderation team quickly banished it on boilerplate grounds that the comment was outside the subject of the blog entry or against editorial policy. As we see, exclusionary policies are still de rigeur in some places.
I have tried to run separate, but related blogs in Finnish and Swedish, such as Eurooppaoikeus and Grahnblawg. However, they have offered little in the way of informed readers and interaction. At the same time, it is hard work to present even a fraction of EU politics and events in a few policy areas in a single language, English, the closest thing we have to a lingua franca.
I respect the valiant individual Eurobloggers who run bilingual blogs. Here are a few examples:
Vihar Georgiev writes the European Union Law blog in English and in Bulgarian, with frequent short updates in parallel.
Another parallel blogger is Europasionaria, in English and in French. She has also added a Google Translate gadget to her pages in order to facilitate communication.
Greg Henning’s EU Weekly contains blog entries in both English and/or French.
Martin on Europaeum alternates between entries in German and English.
Pirate MEP Christian Engström blogs mainly in Swedish, but occasionally in English.
Spanish is the main language of Eva Peña’s Eva en Europa, but she has posted in Catalan as well, and her latest entry was in English.
Including nationals - excluding others
Cédric Puisney aka Un Européen jamais content offers a contrary view to the inclusionary efforts, at least if English is used as a bridging language. He deplores bloggers abandoning their mother tongue to blog in English. He sees linguistic poverty, the threat of impoverished debate and the abandonment of the average EU citizen (citoyen lambda européen).
According to Wikipedia, 51 per cent of the EU population speaks English, followed by German (32%) and French (26%). English is more widely spoken and understood worldwide than the other European languages. (About 20 per cent of Grahnlaw’s readers come from North America.)
We have seen a few examples of bridging policies of inclusion, as well as exclusionary reactions and arguments (Blogs Arte, Cédric Puisney).
Should we confine our Euroblogs and blog discussions to separate national or linguistic forums for Citizen Lambda, or should we do our best to lower barriers between Eurobloggers and to promote pan-European interaction?
Ralf Grahn
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Euroblogs: Languages and interaction
We see a continuing lively debate on Euroblogs and Twitter (for instance #euroblog #EU #bkaeb #bbs10) regarding blogging about the European Union. Bloggingportal.eu has grown to aggregate the posts of 630 EU oriented blogs, and it already forms a community of sorts.
My impression from a long time of blog reading is that there is a deep linguistic divide between the English language and French (Italian, Spanish) blogospheres on Europe.
If the politics of European integration, and the policies and law of the European Union are common European themes, why are there so few readers over the linguistic borders and why is there so little interaction between bloggers?
One concrete example: Grahnlaw has more readers from the United States, where people are not directly concerned by the EU, than from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain combined, long-standing members of the European Union.
Bloggers are usually educated persons, and especially Eurobloggers tend to have at least some foreign language skills.
If European integration is about lowering barriers and erasing borders, why not try to make it easier to interact?
Many of us read a foreign language without being able to write it correctly.
There has never been any requirement that comments on Grahnlaw have to be in English, but I have decided to make the policy explicit, by inviting comments in a number of languages:
Even if the Grahnlaw blog and my replies are in English, feel free to comment in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish.
I suggest that other Euroblogs announce similar open policies in order to increase interaction in the Euroblogosphere.
Machine translation advances rapidly, but the results are still often so crude that meaningful and nuanced discussion is impossible. Therefore, I have decided to experiment with a limited selection of languages I am able to read (Dutch and Portuguese only with a dictionary).
Ralf Grahn
My impression from a long time of blog reading is that there is a deep linguistic divide between the English language and French (Italian, Spanish) blogospheres on Europe.
If the politics of European integration, and the policies and law of the European Union are common European themes, why are there so few readers over the linguistic borders and why is there so little interaction between bloggers?
One concrete example: Grahnlaw has more readers from the United States, where people are not directly concerned by the EU, than from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain combined, long-standing members of the European Union.
Bloggers are usually educated persons, and especially Eurobloggers tend to have at least some foreign language skills.
If European integration is about lowering barriers and erasing borders, why not try to make it easier to interact?
Many of us read a foreign language without being able to write it correctly.
There has never been any requirement that comments on Grahnlaw have to be in English, but I have decided to make the policy explicit, by inviting comments in a number of languages:
Even if the Grahnlaw blog and my replies are in English, feel free to comment in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish.
I suggest that other Euroblogs announce similar open policies in order to increase interaction in the Euroblogosphere.
Machine translation advances rapidly, but the results are still often so crude that meaningful and nuanced discussion is impossible. Therefore, I have decided to experiment with a limited selection of languages I am able to read (Dutch and Portuguese only with a dictionary).
Ralf Grahn
Sunday, 19 July 2009
India and the European Union
India has nearly 1.2 billion people, the European Union almost 0.5 billion.
India has 28 states and 7 territories, the EU has 27 member states.
India has two official languages and more than twenty other official languages at state level. The European Union has 23 official languages.
India has a federal, secular and democratic constitution. The European Union has not.
***
What do we mean by first world and third world?
Ralf Grahn
India has 28 states and 7 territories, the EU has 27 member states.
India has two official languages and more than twenty other official languages at state level. The European Union has 23 official languages.
India has a federal, secular and democratic constitution. The European Union has not.
***
What do we mean by first world and third world?
Ralf Grahn
Sunday, 11 January 2009
EU Law in Russian
Political and economic relations between Russia and the European Union are a permanent fixture, with challenges and opportunities. Russia and the EU have common borders and neighbours, where Russian is spoken or known as a second language. Even within the European Union there are sizable Russian minorities, but Russian is not among the official languages of the EU.
In other words, there is potentially a huge “market” for factual and updated information about the European Union in Russian. There is now a new web site “EU Law” in Russian beginning to offer materials and articles in translation.
Students, businesses, politicians and citizens in Russia, the EU and in partner countries can find information here:
http://new.eulaw.ru
I wish the new “EU Law” site in Russian success in bridging the information gap.
Ralf Grahn
In other words, there is potentially a huge “market” for factual and updated information about the European Union in Russian. There is now a new web site “EU Law” in Russian beginning to offer materials and articles in translation.
Students, businesses, politicians and citizens in Russia, the EU and in partner countries can find information here:
http://new.eulaw.ru
I wish the new “EU Law” site in Russian success in bridging the information gap.
Ralf Grahn
Thursday, 15 May 2008
EU resources: How to find them (Example: transport policies)
Do you need resources on EU policies or law? Are you in a hurry, but don’t know where to start?
Many find the European Union’s web pages hard to navigate. Therefore, I have tried to gather a few basic resources, without striving to include everything.
Here is a selective (or eclectic) list of gateways to EU economics, law and policies. We use transport policy as an example, but you can ‘mutatis mutandis’ use most of the materials in other policy fields.
***
What is the importance and impact of transport within the European Union?
EU energy and transport in figures, Statistical pocketbook 2007/2008, offers 216 pages of information about two crucial economic sectors:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/figures/pocketbook/doc/2007/2007_pocketbook_all_en.pdf
In another policy area, you might not be as lucky, but almost every area of human activity leaves a statistical footprint. For the European Union, your default option is to see what Eurostat has to offer:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1090,30070682,1090_33076576&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
***
What has happened since your course-book was finalised?
The Commission’s Activities of the European Union Transport web page, offers all-round links to EU transport matters:
http://europa.eu/pol/trans/index_en.htm
In the same way you can access every DG of the European Commission through the Europa portal:
http://europa.eu/
Look for ‘What the European Union does by subject’ on:
http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
***
The Commission’s Scadplus web pages, with summaries of legislation, present thematic starting points for different policy areas. Transport is found on:
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/s13000.htm
Correspondingly, you find the other areas of European Community (European Union) legislation through:
http://europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm
***
What is going on in the European Union?
As always, the European Commission’s General Report on the Activities of the European Union 2007 offers a summary of the main developments in the various policy areas, except for the latest months after the beginning of 2008, with Transport on pages 76 to 83. The current report can be accessed through:
http://europa.eu/generalreport/en/welcome.htm
In this and in other cases, for those who understand a Nordic language, the government of Sweden offers an annual report of comparable scope and quality. The latest activity report is ‘Regeringens skirivelse 2007/2008:85 Berättelse om verksamheten I Europeiska union under 2007’, with transport treated on pages 163 to 180 (in ’Del 7 Transporter, elektroniska kommunikationer och energi’):
http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c6/10/06/17/00a8fda3.pdf
Both the Commission’s Activity Report and the Swedish Annual Report work as well for other policy fields.
***
You missed the last days?
The latest press releases from the EU institutions are found on ‘What’s new on Europa’:
http://europa.eu/geninfo/whatsnew.htm
***
Foreign and security policy? European Council or Council?
If your interest concerns the common foreign and security policy (CFSP), including the common security and defence policy (CSDP), or the European Council or the different Council configurations, the Council web pages are for you:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.ASP?lang=en
***
Naturally, there are lots of more EU web sites depending on your interests. Law librarians have compiled useful EU research guides, but for a ‘quick and dirty’ search a few minutes on the ‘Essential European Union Law Websites’ may be all you need. The Delegation of the European Commission to the USA has compiled the mini site map of European Union legal web pages:
http://www.eurunion.org/infores/BestLawSites.htm
***
Languages?
I have followed the English web pages, but the European Union has 23 treaty languages and official languages. This means that you can find the treaties, secondary legislation and proposals in these languages.
A huge amount of information material is produced in every official EU language, and there are often language options on the web page, once you have found what you are looking for.
Press releases and other non-binding materials are translated according to need and capacity, with the Commission’s working languages (English, French and German) well represented. The Council works almost equally in English and French (my feeling), and the primary internal language of the European Court of Justice is French. The European Parliament heroically translates most information material into every official language.
Still, knowing languages increases your options. The press release or document you are looking for may be released earlier in one language, but it may take a while before the other language versions appear.
***
Dear reader, I would be happy to read about your experiences navigating the European Union.
Ralf Grahn
Many find the European Union’s web pages hard to navigate. Therefore, I have tried to gather a few basic resources, without striving to include everything.
Here is a selective (or eclectic) list of gateways to EU economics, law and policies. We use transport policy as an example, but you can ‘mutatis mutandis’ use most of the materials in other policy fields.
***
What is the importance and impact of transport within the European Union?
EU energy and transport in figures, Statistical pocketbook 2007/2008, offers 216 pages of information about two crucial economic sectors:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/figures/pocketbook/doc/2007/2007_pocketbook_all_en.pdf
In another policy area, you might not be as lucky, but almost every area of human activity leaves a statistical footprint. For the European Union, your default option is to see what Eurostat has to offer:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1090,30070682,1090_33076576&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
***
What has happened since your course-book was finalised?
The Commission’s Activities of the European Union Transport web page, offers all-round links to EU transport matters:
http://europa.eu/pol/trans/index_en.htm
In the same way you can access every DG of the European Commission through the Europa portal:
http://europa.eu/
Look for ‘What the European Union does by subject’ on:
http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
***
The Commission’s Scadplus web pages, with summaries of legislation, present thematic starting points for different policy areas. Transport is found on:
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/s13000.htm
Correspondingly, you find the other areas of European Community (European Union) legislation through:
http://europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm
***
What is going on in the European Union?
As always, the European Commission’s General Report on the Activities of the European Union 2007 offers a summary of the main developments in the various policy areas, except for the latest months after the beginning of 2008, with Transport on pages 76 to 83. The current report can be accessed through:
http://europa.eu/generalreport/en/welcome.htm
In this and in other cases, for those who understand a Nordic language, the government of Sweden offers an annual report of comparable scope and quality. The latest activity report is ‘Regeringens skirivelse 2007/2008:85 Berättelse om verksamheten I Europeiska union under 2007’, with transport treated on pages 163 to 180 (in ’Del 7 Transporter, elektroniska kommunikationer och energi’):
http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c6/10/06/17/00a8fda3.pdf
Both the Commission’s Activity Report and the Swedish Annual Report work as well for other policy fields.
***
You missed the last days?
The latest press releases from the EU institutions are found on ‘What’s new on Europa’:
http://europa.eu/geninfo/whatsnew.htm
***
Foreign and security policy? European Council or Council?
If your interest concerns the common foreign and security policy (CFSP), including the common security and defence policy (CSDP), or the European Council or the different Council configurations, the Council web pages are for you:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.ASP?lang=en
***
Naturally, there are lots of more EU web sites depending on your interests. Law librarians have compiled useful EU research guides, but for a ‘quick and dirty’ search a few minutes on the ‘Essential European Union Law Websites’ may be all you need. The Delegation of the European Commission to the USA has compiled the mini site map of European Union legal web pages:
http://www.eurunion.org/infores/BestLawSites.htm
***
Languages?
I have followed the English web pages, but the European Union has 23 treaty languages and official languages. This means that you can find the treaties, secondary legislation and proposals in these languages.
A huge amount of information material is produced in every official EU language, and there are often language options on the web page, once you have found what you are looking for.
Press releases and other non-binding materials are translated according to need and capacity, with the Commission’s working languages (English, French and German) well represented. The Council works almost equally in English and French (my feeling), and the primary internal language of the European Court of Justice is French. The European Parliament heroically translates most information material into every official language.
Still, knowing languages increases your options. The press release or document you are looking for may be released earlier in one language, but it may take a while before the other language versions appear.
***
Dear reader, I would be happy to read about your experiences navigating the European Union.
Ralf Grahn
Saturday, 16 February 2008
Consolidated Lisbon Treaty Update
People continue to arrive at this blog looking for a consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The last update of the list of consolidated language versions is not that old, published 8 February 2008. But since then a few kind souls have told us about new consolidations, and I have been able to take a look at some complementary sources. Therefore, the time for an update has come.
Let us remember that the European Union has 23 treaty and official languages. The intergovernmental conference itself professed its belief in linguistic diversity, and encouraged the translation of the treaties into regional and minority languages by the member state governments.
As far as I know, with the exception of a leaked French version from the European Parliament, none of the consolidations has been produced by the EU institutions, and only one directly by a government. The rest have been compiled by parliaments, think-tanks, NGOs and private citizens.
The nine or ten languages with consolidated versions published to date cover only parts of our community of 490 million citizens.
Here is an updated list of the language versions found this far (almost all in pdf format), with the languages mentioned in alphabetical order in English:
Danish
The EU information of the Danish parliament communicates actively. Some information is available in English, too. The consolidated Lisbon Treaty is an update.
Folketingets EU-Oplysning: Sammenskrevet udgave af udkastet til Lissabon-traktaten og det gaeldande traktatunderlag; Bind 1 Traktater, Bind 2 Protokoller og erklaeringer;
http://www.eu-oplysningen.dk/emner/reformtraktat/reform/sammenskrevet/
***
Dutch
The DJ Nozem blog pointed me towards this new consolidation in Word format, compiled by René Barents and posted on the web site of the daily NRC Handelsblad.
René Barents: Geconsolideerde teksten van het Verdrag betreffende de Europese Unie en het Verdrag betreffende de werking van de Europese Unie zoals gewijzigd door het Verdrag van Lissabon
http://www.nrc.nl/redactie/Europa/verdraglissabon_barents.doc
***
English
IIEA
Peadar ó Broin at the Institute of International and European Affairs (Dublin, Ireland) has produced a complete updated consolidation of the amended treaties, including the protocols and annexes, in a format easy to read (pdf).
Treaty on European Union
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
Annexes to the EU and FEU Treaties
Protocols to the EU and FEU Treaties and, where appropriate, to the EAEC Treaty
Go to http://www.iiea.com
Statewatch
Professor Steve Peers has painstakingly compiled an annotated version consisting of several files for the Statewatch Observatory on the EU Constitution and the Reform Treaty, where similarities and differences between the different reform stages are highlighted. Informative, if you know what you are looking for.
Go to http://www.statewatch.org
FCO
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office published a complete consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon. The ratification debate in the House of Commons is ongoing.
The FCO web pages on Britain in the EU contain both general information on the Reform Treaty and answers on specific questions in addition to the consolidation I just mentioned. For the consolidated version of the Lisbon Treaty, see Command Paper 7310 ‘Consolidated texts of the EU Treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon’:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/FCO_PDF_CM7310_ConsolidatedTreaties.pdf
The FCO also published Command Paper 7311 ‘A comparative table of the current EC and EU Treaties as amended by the treaty of Lisbon’, which briefly sets out the similarities and differences between the Lisbon Treaty and the other relevant Treaties article by article. Available through the Official Documents web page (as is Cm 7310 mentioned above):
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/
Markus Walther
Markus Walther, a German student from Leipzig, who produced and published a German consolidated version of the EU Treaty of Lisbon on his web site, posted an English readable consolidated version as well (a preliminary document without protocols and charter).
Go to http://www.mwalther.net/europa/eulaw-lisbon-mwalther.pdf
Open Europe
Open Europe produced a consolidated version with the Treaty of Lisbon and the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe presented side by side for convenient comparison.
Open Europe: The Lisbon Treaty and the European Constitution: A side-by-side comparison; January 2008;
http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/comparative.pdf
***
Finnish
Europe Information, of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has promised a consolidated version during the spring.
***
French
Europa-EU-Audience
The bilingual web site en.europa-eu-audience found two unofficial parallel versions of the amending treaties in French, side by side with the current ones:
http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/fr/files/EP_TCE_versus_TFU_Final.doc
http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/fr/files/EP_TUE_versus_TUE_final.doc
Assemblée nationale
Assemblée nationale : Rapport d’information sur les modifications apportées par le traité de Lisbonne au traité sur l’Union européenne et au traité instituant la Communauté européenne, par M. Axel Poniatowski ; No 439, 28 novembre 2007 ;
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/pdf/rap-info/i0439.pdf
Later, the French National Assembly has presented a consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon side by side with the current treaties. Look for Assemblée Nationale: Rapport d’information déposé par la Délégation de l’Assemblée Nationale pour l’Union Européenne, sur le traité de Lisbonne ; No 562, Tome 2, 8 janvier 2008 :
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/dossiers/traite_lisbonne_due_information.asp
Jean-Luc Sauron
Jean-Luc Sauron: Comprendre le Traité de Lisbonne – Texte consolidé intégral des traités – Explications et commentaires ; Gualino éditeur, Paris 2008 ; 351 p. (Prix 20 €)
The book (pages 141 – 351) contains, in a handy format, consolidated versions of the amended Treaty on European Union, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Explanations relating to it as well as a modest Index.
In principle, the Treaty texts are based on a version from 30 October 2007, but footnotes take later modifications into account.
***
German
Markus Walther
Markus Walther: Das Primärrecht der Europäischen Union; Endfassung, Stand 18. Dezember 2007; (updated after signing)
http://www.mwalther.net/union.html
Klemens H. Fischer
The book “Der Vertrag von Lissabon – Text und Kommentar zum Europäischen Reformvertrag”, by Klemens H. Fischer (Nomos, Stämpfli Verlag and Verlag Österreich) describes the EU reform process and especially the IGC 2007 before it presents consolidated and annotated versions of the TEU and TFEU including protocols and declarations. The accompanying CD-Rom contains background material and three different consolidations of each treaty: with amendments highlighted and footnotes, with amendments highlighted and a neutral consolidated version.
***
Hungarian
Two sources reported that the Hungarian government has published a consolidation of the Lisbon Treaty, although was not able to verify it. But I encourage anyone with the linguistic and technical skills to search (and to report back).
***
Irish Gaelic
A consolidation in Irish Gaelic has been announced by the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin.
Go to http://www.iiea.com
***
Portuguese
Peadar ó Broin reported on a version in Portuguese also, prepared by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.eu2007.pt/NR/rdonlyres/1D96311C-F90D-4E97-B355-DFEA0DD1ABEA/0/TLconsolidado.pdf
Alternatively, you can link to the text via the website for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.mne.gov.pt/
Or you can link via the website for the Portuguese Presidency of 2007:
http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/vPT/Presidencia_Conselho/TratadoLisboa.htm
***
Spanish
Real Instituto Elcano offers a complete updated consolidation, with protocols and declarations, in Spanish, compiled by José Martín y Pérez de Nanclares and Mariola Urrea Corres. The former has written an introductory study.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org
***
Swedish
Sieps – Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier, the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, has published a complete consolidated Swedish language version of the Lisbon Treaty.
Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget - Konsoliderad version av EU:s fördrag (pdf)
Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget – Protokoll mm (pdf)
http://www.sieps.se
The publisher SNS Förlag has announced a handy pocket version of the Treaty of Lisbon in Swedish, to be published 29 February 2008. If the new publication follows the pattern of the previous pocket treaties by SNS, it will contain the bare treaty texts.
http://www.sns.se
***
If the number of languages with consolidated versions was seven or eight (Hungarian attested but not verified) last time the list was published, we now know of 9 or 10 official EU languages covered out of 23.
Are there more consolidated versions the citizens of the European Union should be aware of?
I am most grateful, if you want to share your knowledge on the Treaty of Lisbon with me and other EU citizens: consolidated versions as well as books and resources, such as official documents from the member states’ governments and parliaments, scholarly assessments and popular literature, plus information on the ratification processes.
Ralf Grahn
The last update of the list of consolidated language versions is not that old, published 8 February 2008. But since then a few kind souls have told us about new consolidations, and I have been able to take a look at some complementary sources. Therefore, the time for an update has come.
Let us remember that the European Union has 23 treaty and official languages. The intergovernmental conference itself professed its belief in linguistic diversity, and encouraged the translation of the treaties into regional and minority languages by the member state governments.
As far as I know, with the exception of a leaked French version from the European Parliament, none of the consolidations has been produced by the EU institutions, and only one directly by a government. The rest have been compiled by parliaments, think-tanks, NGOs and private citizens.
The nine or ten languages with consolidated versions published to date cover only parts of our community of 490 million citizens.
Here is an updated list of the language versions found this far (almost all in pdf format), with the languages mentioned in alphabetical order in English:
Danish
The EU information of the Danish parliament communicates actively. Some information is available in English, too. The consolidated Lisbon Treaty is an update.
Folketingets EU-Oplysning: Sammenskrevet udgave af udkastet til Lissabon-traktaten og det gaeldande traktatunderlag; Bind 1 Traktater, Bind 2 Protokoller og erklaeringer;
http://www.eu-oplysningen.dk/emner/reformtraktat/reform/sammenskrevet/
***
Dutch
The DJ Nozem blog pointed me towards this new consolidation in Word format, compiled by René Barents and posted on the web site of the daily NRC Handelsblad.
René Barents: Geconsolideerde teksten van het Verdrag betreffende de Europese Unie en het Verdrag betreffende de werking van de Europese Unie zoals gewijzigd door het Verdrag van Lissabon
http://www.nrc.nl/redactie/Europa/verdraglissabon_barents.doc
***
English
IIEA
Peadar ó Broin at the Institute of International and European Affairs (Dublin, Ireland) has produced a complete updated consolidation of the amended treaties, including the protocols and annexes, in a format easy to read (pdf).
Treaty on European Union
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
Annexes to the EU and FEU Treaties
Protocols to the EU and FEU Treaties and, where appropriate, to the EAEC Treaty
Go to http://www.iiea.com
Statewatch
Professor Steve Peers has painstakingly compiled an annotated version consisting of several files for the Statewatch Observatory on the EU Constitution and the Reform Treaty, where similarities and differences between the different reform stages are highlighted. Informative, if you know what you are looking for.
Go to http://www.statewatch.org
FCO
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office published a complete consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon. The ratification debate in the House of Commons is ongoing.
The FCO web pages on Britain in the EU contain both general information on the Reform Treaty and answers on specific questions in addition to the consolidation I just mentioned. For the consolidated version of the Lisbon Treaty, see Command Paper 7310 ‘Consolidated texts of the EU Treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon’:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/FCO_PDF_CM7310_ConsolidatedTreaties.pdf
The FCO also published Command Paper 7311 ‘A comparative table of the current EC and EU Treaties as amended by the treaty of Lisbon’, which briefly sets out the similarities and differences between the Lisbon Treaty and the other relevant Treaties article by article. Available through the Official Documents web page (as is Cm 7310 mentioned above):
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/
Markus Walther
Markus Walther, a German student from Leipzig, who produced and published a German consolidated version of the EU Treaty of Lisbon on his web site, posted an English readable consolidated version as well (a preliminary document without protocols and charter).
Go to http://www.mwalther.net/europa/eulaw-lisbon-mwalther.pdf
Open Europe
Open Europe produced a consolidated version with the Treaty of Lisbon and the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe presented side by side for convenient comparison.
Open Europe: The Lisbon Treaty and the European Constitution: A side-by-side comparison; January 2008;
http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/comparative.pdf
***
Finnish
Europe Information, of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has promised a consolidated version during the spring.
***
French
Europa-EU-Audience
The bilingual web site en.europa-eu-audience found two unofficial parallel versions of the amending treaties in French, side by side with the current ones:
http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/fr/files/EP_TCE_versus_TFU_Final.doc
http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/fr/files/EP_TUE_versus_TUE_final.doc
Assemblée nationale
Assemblée nationale : Rapport d’information sur les modifications apportées par le traité de Lisbonne au traité sur l’Union européenne et au traité instituant la Communauté européenne, par M. Axel Poniatowski ; No 439, 28 novembre 2007 ;
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/pdf/rap-info/i0439.pdf
Later, the French National Assembly has presented a consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon side by side with the current treaties. Look for Assemblée Nationale: Rapport d’information déposé par la Délégation de l’Assemblée Nationale pour l’Union Européenne, sur le traité de Lisbonne ; No 562, Tome 2, 8 janvier 2008 :
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/dossiers/traite_lisbonne_due_information.asp
Jean-Luc Sauron
Jean-Luc Sauron: Comprendre le Traité de Lisbonne – Texte consolidé intégral des traités – Explications et commentaires ; Gualino éditeur, Paris 2008 ; 351 p. (Prix 20 €)
The book (pages 141 – 351) contains, in a handy format, consolidated versions of the amended Treaty on European Union, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Explanations relating to it as well as a modest Index.
In principle, the Treaty texts are based on a version from 30 October 2007, but footnotes take later modifications into account.
***
German
Markus Walther
Markus Walther: Das Primärrecht der Europäischen Union; Endfassung, Stand 18. Dezember 2007; (updated after signing)
http://www.mwalther.net/union.html
Klemens H. Fischer
The book “Der Vertrag von Lissabon – Text und Kommentar zum Europäischen Reformvertrag”, by Klemens H. Fischer (Nomos, Stämpfli Verlag and Verlag Österreich) describes the EU reform process and especially the IGC 2007 before it presents consolidated and annotated versions of the TEU and TFEU including protocols and declarations. The accompanying CD-Rom contains background material and three different consolidations of each treaty: with amendments highlighted and footnotes, with amendments highlighted and a neutral consolidated version.
***
Hungarian
Two sources reported that the Hungarian government has published a consolidation of the Lisbon Treaty, although was not able to verify it. But I encourage anyone with the linguistic and technical skills to search (and to report back).
***
Irish Gaelic
A consolidation in Irish Gaelic has been announced by the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin.
Go to http://www.iiea.com
***
Portuguese
Peadar ó Broin reported on a version in Portuguese also, prepared by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.eu2007.pt/NR/rdonlyres/1D96311C-F90D-4E97-B355-DFEA0DD1ABEA/0/TLconsolidado.pdf
Alternatively, you can link to the text via the website for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.mne.gov.pt/
Or you can link via the website for the Portuguese Presidency of 2007:
http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/vPT/Presidencia_Conselho/TratadoLisboa.htm
***
Spanish
Real Instituto Elcano offers a complete updated consolidation, with protocols and declarations, in Spanish, compiled by José Martín y Pérez de Nanclares and Mariola Urrea Corres. The former has written an introductory study.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org
***
Swedish
Sieps – Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier, the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, has published a complete consolidated Swedish language version of the Lisbon Treaty.
Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget - Konsoliderad version av EU:s fördrag (pdf)
Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget – Protokoll mm (pdf)
http://www.sieps.se
The publisher SNS Förlag has announced a handy pocket version of the Treaty of Lisbon in Swedish, to be published 29 February 2008. If the new publication follows the pattern of the previous pocket treaties by SNS, it will contain the bare treaty texts.
http://www.sns.se
***
If the number of languages with consolidated versions was seven or eight (Hungarian attested but not verified) last time the list was published, we now know of 9 or 10 official EU languages covered out of 23.
Are there more consolidated versions the citizens of the European Union should be aware of?
I am most grateful, if you want to share your knowledge on the Treaty of Lisbon with me and other EU citizens: consolidated versions as well as books and resources, such as official documents from the member states’ governments and parliaments, scholarly assessments and popular literature, plus information on the ratification processes.
Ralf Grahn
Monday, 14 January 2008
Consolidated Lisbon Treaty: Update
Some additional information on the available unofficial but convenient consolidated versions of the Treaty of Lisbon, which I presented in my 10 January 2008 posting ‘Consolidated Treaty of Lisbon’.
The Wikipedia article on the Lisbon Treaty (to be recommended in itself) had noticed that there is a new English consolidation:
Markus Walther, who produced and published a German consolidated version of the EU Treaty of Lisbon on his web site, has posted an English readable consolidated version as well (a preliminary document without tables of content, annexes, protocols or declarations). See:
http://www.mwalther.net/europa/eulaw-lisbon-mwalther.pdf
Until now we have had the reader-friendly English consolidations offered by Statewatch and the Irish Institute of European Affairs.
A commentator mentioned that a Hungarian user-friendly consolidated version exists, and offered me a link (which did not work). Not knowing Hungarian, I was not able to locate the consolidation on my own, but I suppose that those who know the language would be able to find this language version of the consolidated Reform Treaty on the government web pages.
There would now seem be seven readable language versions out of 23 official languages.
***
No deeds contradict Jens-Peter Bonde MEP when he says (19 December 2007, http://www.bonde.com/):
“The intergovernmental conference decided that no institution should be allowed to publish a consolidated version before the treaty had been finally ratified by all 27 member states.”
Therefore, it is up to national governments, NGOs, think-tanks and individuals to make readable treaties available to the citizens of the Union and to spread the word.
I am, as ever, grateful for information on consolidations of the Lisbon Treaty, the ratification processes and literature on the subject.
Ralf Grahn
The Wikipedia article on the Lisbon Treaty (to be recommended in itself) had noticed that there is a new English consolidation:
Markus Walther, who produced and published a German consolidated version of the EU Treaty of Lisbon on his web site, has posted an English readable consolidated version as well (a preliminary document without tables of content, annexes, protocols or declarations). See:
http://www.mwalther.net/europa/eulaw-lisbon-mwalther.pdf
Until now we have had the reader-friendly English consolidations offered by Statewatch and the Irish Institute of European Affairs.
A commentator mentioned that a Hungarian user-friendly consolidated version exists, and offered me a link (which did not work). Not knowing Hungarian, I was not able to locate the consolidation on my own, but I suppose that those who know the language would be able to find this language version of the consolidated Reform Treaty on the government web pages.
There would now seem be seven readable language versions out of 23 official languages.
***
No deeds contradict Jens-Peter Bonde MEP when he says (19 December 2007, http://www.bonde.com/):
“The intergovernmental conference decided that no institution should be allowed to publish a consolidated version before the treaty had been finally ratified by all 27 member states.”
Therefore, it is up to national governments, NGOs, think-tanks and individuals to make readable treaties available to the citizens of the Union and to spread the word.
I am, as ever, grateful for information on consolidations of the Lisbon Treaty, the ratification processes and literature on the subject.
Ralf Grahn
Friday, 14 December 2007
EU Treaty of Lisbon now in Swedish
One hopeful step for mankind, when the quest for consolidated versions of the Treaty of Lisbon has yielded another result.
Sieps, the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies has published a consolidated version of the Lisbon Reform Treaty of the European Union on its Swedish web page.
Now we have a Swedish updated Lisbon Treaty in addition to the English, French and Spanish consolidations I have mentioned before.
Four languages is a good start, but the EU has 23 official languages. There are still 19 language versions to produce, before we can speak of equal treatment of the citizens of the European Union.
As always, I am grateful for information on existing or forthcoming consolidated versions in different languages.
Ralf Grahn
Source:
Sieps – Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier: Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget - Konsoliderad version av EU:s fördrag (pdf); Choose the Swedish pages http://www.sieps.se
Sieps, the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies has published a consolidated version of the Lisbon Reform Treaty of the European Union on its Swedish web page.
Now we have a Swedish updated Lisbon Treaty in addition to the English, French and Spanish consolidations I have mentioned before.
Four languages is a good start, but the EU has 23 official languages. There are still 19 language versions to produce, before we can speak of equal treatment of the citizens of the European Union.
As always, I am grateful for information on existing or forthcoming consolidated versions in different languages.
Ralf Grahn
Source:
Sieps – Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier: Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget - Konsoliderad version av EU:s fördrag (pdf); Choose the Swedish pages http://www.sieps.se
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Update
A democratic European Union is the challenge for the 21st century as the struggle for local and national representative democracy was during the 19th century.
During the last eleven days I have written in Finnish on themes concerning democracy, inter-governmentalism, European languages, the Reform Treaty, the group of wise men, Jens Peter Bonde MEP, EU politics of the Finnish government and the fault lines of the present EU structure.
The posts can be found on:
http://grahnlaw.blogs.fi
They have the following headings:
Sekavuudesta selkeyteen
Kansallisten eliittien kaappaama EU
Protektionismille huutia
Le Taurillon
Euroopan kielten päivä
Reformisopimus
Mugabelle käsipäivää?
Euroopan kielten päivänä
Suomesta löytyy viisas
Väärä oppi ojaan kaataa
Jens Peter Bonde
Hallitus terästäytyy
Vanhasen teesit
Järki ja tunteet
Kurkkudirektiivi
Pääasiat ja sivuseikat
Regards
Ralf Grahn
During the last eleven days I have written in Finnish on themes concerning democracy, inter-governmentalism, European languages, the Reform Treaty, the group of wise men, Jens Peter Bonde MEP, EU politics of the Finnish government and the fault lines of the present EU structure.
The posts can be found on:
http://grahnlaw.blogs.fi
They have the following headings:
Sekavuudesta selkeyteen
Kansallisten eliittien kaappaama EU
Protektionismille huutia
Le Taurillon
Euroopan kielten päivä
Reformisopimus
Mugabelle käsipäivää?
Euroopan kielten päivänä
Suomesta löytyy viisas
Väärä oppi ojaan kaataa
Jens Peter Bonde
Hallitus terästäytyy
Vanhasen teesit
Järki ja tunteet
Kurkkudirektiivi
Pääasiat ja sivuseikat
Regards
Ralf Grahn
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