Eurobarometer: Europeans worried about unemployment and economy

The media roundup of the EU-wide opinion poll, Eurobarometer, revealed four strands of news reporting and commentary: Stress on economic challenges, or plunging support for EU membership, scepticism towards public opinion polls like Eurobarometer, and available in ten languages on Presseurop Marco Zatterin’s possible synthesis of citizens’ expectations and lack of delivery by EU institutions.



You can follow Marco Zatterin’s Italian blog Straneuropa on La Stampa.



What can we learn from the questions and answers in the Spring 2010 Standard Eurobarometer 73 (First Results), if we take a closer look?

[A technical note, in case others experience the same problems: Every time I have used the Google Chrome browser to access the Eurobarometer poll I have failed to open the pdf document. If I use Internet Explorer, the Eurobarometer document opens easily.]



Eurobarometer background



The field work was carried out by the TNS Opinion & Social network in May 2010, when the financial, economic and eurozone crises were acutely felt, but the counter-measures by the European Union were mainly political declarations, preparatory work or promised proposals.



During the interview period, prime ministers and finance ministers were busy with the eurozone rescue of Greece, the European financial stabilisation mechanism (EFSM) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). The intergovernmental, euro area and EU-wide measures announced were more chaotic and hard to understand than transparent or reassuring.

There was also resentment in the air. In a number of member states, such as the so called PIIGs, the “prodigal son” linked hardship with EU rules on reducing public deficits and debt, while the “older son” grumbled why he should pay for the good-for-nothings.



Main concerns

I do not find it surprising that about four out of five respondents felt that the national, the EU and the world economy were in a bad shape. The domestic employment situation was seen as very bad by 34 per cent (page 7). If anything, the small shifts were towards pessimism.

Although the citizens were a bit more optimistic about their own financial and job situation, they experienced no real turn for the better (page 8).

I would not read too much into small percentage shifts when people were asked to name the two most important issues facing their country.

Two faces of the same coin continue to dominate people’s worries since the spring 2009 Eurobarometer: unemployment and the economic situation. Regarding their own country, respondent were less concerned about rising prices (inflation), crime and healthcare, among the fourteen alternatives offered.

However, rising prices (inflation) remained the major anxiety at a personal level, especially in troubled new member states.

Costs of living affect everyone directly, whereas the general economic situation is somewhat more abstract and unemployment hits only a part of the population (page 10).



The mood among EU citizens almost four months ago was sombre, but sentiments may have improved somewhat since then (AFP). There are signs of recovery and rising confidence, but the signals are uneven, and many member states are still in deep trouble.



The wide discrepancies between euro area countries have not laid speculation about the future of the common currency to rest, as experienced on the shop floor by Wolfgang Münchau in the Financial Times.

We have to evaluate the levels of trust and the actions meriting confidence against this background.



Kupchan and Matizandrea



In The Washington Post, Charles Kupchan took a broad and pessimistic or realistic view of the state of the EU: As nationalism rises, will the European Union fail?



I first noticed Kupchan’s thought-provoking article through Daniel Mason of The Endless Track blog.



I also found a comment (in Italian) about the Eurobarometer poll on Matizandrea’s Blog: Quarantadue percento (Forty two per cent).




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.

Eurobarometer media roundup reveals four readings

From a summary of the Eurobarometer controversy we set course for our following harbour: a roundup of how the latest EU-wide poll of public opinion has been received. In Roundup haven we bunker facts and arguments for the next leg of our voyage.

We find four threads of thought in the news reports and comments on the latest Eurobarometer poll.



Economic challenges

Some of the news reports and comments have focused on the growing demand for economic policy coordination and reform, the points the European Commission chose to highlight in its press release.



It’s the economy, stupid, said a curious Yankee in Europe’s court, intimating that US and EU citizens share common priorities about economic woes.



On the WSJ Real Time Brussels blog, John W. Miller highlighted a broad base of support for spending cuts and belt-tightening.



The Eurolocal blog gives extended coverage (in Catalan) to the support for economic reform: Els ciutadans de la UE, a favor de reforçar la governanca econòmica europea!



Plunging EU support

Much of the news reporting concentrated on the sinking levels of support for EU membership, something Open Europe also stressed, besides bitching about the Commission.



Marcin Grajewski recorded for Reuters that popular support for European Union membership had fallen to a nine-year low, in May when the EU was hit by sovereign-debt problems and when some member states were in recession.



Meera Louis, for Bloomberg, reported that Europeans’ confidence in the European Union dropped to a six-year low as the 27-nation bloc battled the Greece-led debt crisis.



Even prospective members have gone cold on the European project, with just 27% of Turks saying they trust Brussels, said the Bulgarian news agency Novinite.com.



Public support for the European Union has collapsed to a nine-year low in all of its 27 countries, was the reading of The Daily Express in the United Kingdom, news warmly received by anti-EU commentators.



Euro(barometer) sceptics



The European Citizen was sceptic about the possibilities to draw real policy conclusions from vague Eurobarometer questions and answers. In his latest comment, Eurocentric thought it was a pity that the Commission and Open Europe thought that they had to spin the results. He has now posted a German version of the post on the blog Ein europäischer Bürger.



According to Gary Finnegan, asking vague questions which invite predictable answers, and then concluding that the respondants support your political position is wrong.



Emerging synthesis?



In an opinion piece on Presseurop, Marco Zatterin reaches a synthesis. The European Union is plunging in the polls because more and more people feel the EU should be the one to solve the problems of the recession. As a matter of fact, three quarters of Europe is calling for more policy coordination.

Fewer people believe Europe is “a good thing” not because they’re against integration per se, but because they feel betrayed by the 27 and the way they’re handling it. They are demanding more, wrote Zatterin.



The article was originally published La Stampa (in Italian): Il tradimento dell’Europa.



Besides the Italian original and the English translation, Presseurop has published versions in Czech, Dutch, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish.



Detailed discussion



These are the four main strands I was able to find. Most of the instant news reporting fell into one of two categories, either focusing on the demand for more ‘economic governance’ at EU level, or highlighting the declining support for membership in the European Union.

A third line of thought found expression in scepticism regarding the value of opinion polls like Eurobarometer.

A fourth thread was presented in the La Stampa / Presseurop article available in ten languages. Marco Zatterin drew his conclusions about the great expectations of Europeans and the failed delivery by the EU institutions.

Our next stages require detailed study and discussion about individual questions and results reported in the Spring 2010 Eurobarometer. How much can we, in good conscience, read into the replies?




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.

Eurobarometer controversy

The UK based anti-EU lobby group Open Europe managed, perhaps unintentionally, to stir up a debate at European level when they accused the European Commission of spinning the results of the Eurobarometer poll of public opinion in the European Union. After – as they might have seen it – beating the Commission to pulp, they finally reached what they saw as the main result: declining support for EU membership.

The EU Commission’s press release branded as dishonest by Open Europe can be found here (26 August 2010, IP/10/1071; available in 22 languages):



Spring 2010 Eurobarometer: EU citizens favour stronger European economic governance




All guns firing, Open Europe delivered its broadside from its blog, its daily press summary, its fortnightly bulletin and on Director Mats Persson’s blog.



In my humble view, Open Europe gave in to its urge to bash the Commission, while missing a golden opportunity to discuss growing European awareness of the need for economic reform at macro and micro level; that is, if Open Europe really is interested in these issues with the European public good at heart.



British exceptionalism



I had first discussed the political atmosphere and media climate in the United Kingdom, resulting in a high level of distrust and a low level of trust for the European Union, then pointed out how unique British public opinion is in its exceptionalism.



Spin or policy pointers?


My intention was to move on to the issue of declining support for the European Union, but then I felt that I had to take a closer look at Open Europe’s accusations and the European Commission’s “offending” press release.


Shorthand

My reading was that Open Europe seemed to have found particularly offensive that the headline of the press release and Commissioner Viviane Reding had used the words stronger or enhanced “economic governance” as shorthand for the 75 per cent EU-wide support for a “stronger coordination of economic and financial policies among all the EU Member States”, the highest support (26 per cent) among institutions - national and international - for ability to “take effective actions against the financial and economic crisis”, as well as high support for some sort of economic reform agenda (reducing public deficit and debt in respondent’s own country, surveillance of international financial groups, and for priorities of the EU 2020 reform strategy).


Challenges


Whether openly accounted for or not, the issues debated reflect fundamental assumptions about politics and policies at European level. Despite my tentative findings, the ongoing discussion and the detailed Eurobarometer results still merit a closer look.




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.

Eurobarometer findings on EU public opinion: Open Europe blew it

In God We Trust is the official motto of the United States of America, surprisingly for a country where the first amendment enshrines the separation of church and state.

What do citizens of the European Union trust in?


The UK based anti-EU lobby group Open Europe has avidly seized on diminished support for the EU:



On 26 August 2010, the Open Europe blog accused the European Commission: A Classic Example Of EU Spin. According to Open Europe the Commission is “trying to take us for a ride”.



The main item of the Open Europe’s press summary 27 August 2010 was: Support for the EU falls to a nine year low; Only 50% of Germans consider EU membership “a good thing” – down 10 points in less than a year.



The main headline of the Fortnightly Open Europe Bulletin 27 August 2010: Support for EU hits nine-year low. Open Europe called the European Commission’s press release a blatant and dishonest (taxpayer-funded) attempt by the Commission to spin clearly unfavorable poll results.



The same day, Open Europe Director Mats Persson recycled the allegation in a post on his EUobserver blog: An exceptionally poor attempt at spinning unfavourable poll results.


Commission press release

Let us go to the EU Commission’s offending press release (26 August 2010, IP/10/1071; available in 22 languages):



Spring 2010 Eurobarometer: EU citizens favour stronger European economic governance


Open Europe seems to have found particularly offensive that the headline of the press release and Commissioner Viviane Reding used the words stronger or enhanced “economic governance” as shorthand for the 75 per cent EU-wide support for a “stronger coordination of economic and financial policies among all the EU Member States”, the highest support (26 per cent) among institutions - national and international - for ability to “take effective actions against the financial and economic crisis”, as well as high support for some sort of economic reform agenda (reducing public deficit and debt in respondent’s own country, surveillance of international financial groups, and for priorities of the EU 2020 reform strategy).

Actually, sensible enterprise interest groups and single market supporters notice promising signs of European awareness of the need for economic reform, at macro and micro level.


What is Open Europe playing at?

But professedly pro-market Open Europe, worried about “pressing challenges of weak economic growth, rising global competition, insecurity and a looming demographic crisis” blew it.

Blew it by playing with words, instead of looking at the substance.

This is the benign interpretation. It is possible that Open Europe’s interests lie elsewhere, not in a general European interest to achieve economic reform.

A more worrying alternative is dogmatism: that the overriding ideological aim of Open Europe is to dismantle or roll back the European Union, so much so that the interest of functioning economies and markets come second.

Another possibility is that the real agenda of Open Europe is to keep the EU too weak to coordinate economic policies and in order to protect the particular interests of a few financial institutions from sensible supervision.

Or are there still other reasons for such vehemence against ‘economic governance’?



The European Citizen wisely said the Eurobarometer results are vague, and that policy makers and supporters will have to make the cases for their ideas and try and win support for them.

Open Europe’s urge to bash the Commission got in the way of a golden opportunity to boost the economic reform agenda of the European Union, but perhaps this is but a minor concern for this lobby group and its backers.

EU citizens trust in economic reform and in the European Union, more than in their national government or parliament, but what does Open Europe trust in?




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.

From Paint It Black to Moses? UK public opinion on EU

Yesterday’s blog post, UK Eurobarometer score: Euromyths 68 - Trust 20, discussed the media climate and public opinion in the United Kingdom with regard to the European Union. The Eurobarometer findings are in line with what we have reported many times before, for instance the Angus Reid poll published in June 2010.



If we turn from the UK country factsheet of the Spring 2010 Standard Eurobarometer 73, which compares the country only with EU averages, to the full first results, we see the uniqueness of public opinion in Britain.

In May 2010, the general level of trust in the European Union had plummeted from 48 to 42 per cent. Estonia reported the highest trust score, 68 per cent, with 22 per cent tending to be distrustful of the European Union (pages 15 and 16).

Not only did the United Kingdom report almost the reverse numbers – 68 per cent distrusting and 20 per cent trustful – but the second lowest trust score among all 27 member states was the 37 per cent reported from Germany, almost twice the proportion in Britain.

The negativism of the political atmosphere, media climate and public opinion in the United Kingdom are truly exceptional, almost four decades after accession.


The view of European integration and the European Union in the UK is not bleak – it is tainted uniquely black.



Should the UK government (Pharaoh) listen to what the voters (Moses) have to say in “Go Down Moses”?

Namely: Let my people go.

Withdrawal or secession in Eurospeak.




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.

UK Eurobarometer score: Euromyths 68 - Trust 20

About three months from the conclusion of the fieldwork, the first results of the regular Eurobarometer poll are out. Yesterday, many Twitter comments about the findings were like shells fired in an artillery battle between entrenched frontlines, but even with the best will in the world it is hard to be analytical in 140 characters about a survey of opinions in 27 EU member states (and candidate countries).



Not unsurprisingly, the untiring anti-EU munitions factory Open Europe uses its blog to accuse the European Commission of spin when highlighting the demand for crisis resolution by the European Union.



Anyone heard of “the pot calling the kettle black”?



The press summaries of Open Europe seem to translate the lobby group’s professed aim of radical EU reform into a daily tirade of negative quotes from disgruntled individuals all over Europe.



These selective snippets, as well as opinions and ‘research’ by Open Europe are then fired off by mass market media on the anti-EU campaign trail (examples The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express), as well as their high-profile columnists.



Various campaign groups (examples EU Referendum Campaign and the Bruges Group, mentioned by Eurogoblin) in the United Kingdom are only too happy to praise their Lords and pass the ammunition, hoping for V-Day in the form of an ‘out’ referendum.



Pot shots by ‘patriotic’ foot soldiers in the Angloblogosphere (examples EUReferendum blog, Witterings From Witney, The Talking Clock, Your Freedom and Ours, The Boiling Frog, John Redwood, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, Cranmer) echo the big guns by repeat fire consisting of legitimate criticism, one-sided cursing, twisted facts and pure Euromyths.



Because many of the ‘better off out’ blogs are content to quote each other, without caring to check or evaluate the original sources, many Euromyths keep making the rounds long after being exposed as complete bollocks.



Small wonder that critical but sane bloggers like Nosemonkey, Eurogoblin, The European Citizen, Atomic Spin, The Endless Track, Robert Jones, Euromove and WSJ Real Time Brussels repeatedly refute Euromyths or calmly disprove them by presenting more constructive views.



The saner voices may have the facts and arguments on their side, but they lack fire power. The anti-EU shelling – branded as eurosceptic - has turned public opinion in the United Kingdom, especially England, deeply suspicious of European integration and the European Union. According to Eurobarometer 73 (Spring 2010), in the UK only 20 per cent of the Crown subjects tend to trust the EU, while 68 per cent lack trust, so the levels of trust are way below the EU averages. Exceptionally, in Great Britain even the national parliament and government are slightly more trusted than the EU.

In the short run the negative attitudes are a problem for the European Union, but at a deeper level the disconnect between voter sentiment and rulers poses serious questions for the political system in the United Kingdom.

How far can the policy choices in a representative democracy legitimately be allowed to ennoble public opinion by straying from the views of the ruled?




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.

Death penalty unconditionally abolished by 25 EU member states

Twenty five of 27 EU member states have abolished the death penalty in all circumstances, and even the recalcitrant two have done away with capital punishment during peaceful times.


What do Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom have in common?





Final step

As of 25 August 2010, these 25 member states of the European Union were among the 42 members of the Council of Europe, which have ratified Protocol No. 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances (CETS No.: 187).



Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR expresses the resolve to take the final step in order to abolish the death penalty in all circumstances, which is stated in unequivocal terms:

Article 1 – Abolition of the death penalty

The death penalty shall be abolished. No one shall be condemned to such penalty or executed.


Article 2 – Prohibition of derogations

No derogation from the provisions of this Protocol shall be made under Article 15 of the Convention.


Article 3 – Prohibition of reservations

No reservation may be made under Article 57 of the Convention in respect of the provisions of this Protocol.

Protocol No. 13 is in force between the 42 ratifying states:

Article 5 – Relationship to the Convention

As between the States Parties the provisions of Articles 1 to 4 of this Protocol shall be regarded as additional articles to the Convention, and all the provisions of the Convention shall apply accordingly.

Two missing EU



We note that some progress has been made. When I published the blog post EU reintroducing the death penalty? (25 April 2008), four EU members had signed but not ratified Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR. Since then, Italy ratified 3 March 2009 and Spain 16 December 2009, so this latest ratification came into force as recently as 1 April 2010, during the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Instead of four, only two of the 27 member states of the European Union still mar the picture of unity in Europe and abroad. Latvia and Poland have signed but not ratified Protocol No. 13.

Let us hope that soon Latvia and Poland lend their weight to the efforts of the Council of Europe and the European Union to abolish the death penalty globally.



Five missing CoE

The adoption of Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR is almost universal among the CoE’s 47 members. In addition to the two EU laggards, only three member states of the pan-European organisation have not brought the unconditional ban on capital punishment into force.

Armenia has signed but not ratified. Azerbaijan and Russia have neither signed nor ratified.



In peaceful times



All 46 CoE members but Russia have, however, ratified the earlier Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty (CETS No.: 114).



Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR abolishes the death penalty (Article 1), but leaves open the right to enact a law on capital punishment for acts committed in times of war or imminent threat of war:

Article 2 – Death penalty in time of war

A State may make provision in its law for the death penalty in respect of acts committed in time of war or of imminent threat of war; such penalty shall be applied only in the instances laid down in the law and in accordance with its provisions. The State shall communicate to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe the relevant provisions of that law.

In other words, all EU states (and all other CoE members, except Russia) have abolished the death penalty with regard to peaceful times.



According to Wikipedia, 58 nations in the world still maintain the death penalty in both law and practice, while 95 have abolished it.



ECHR turns 60



The 60th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights is on 4 November 2010. During this time human rights protection in Europe has developed:

Over half a century, the rights enshrined in the Convention have gradually evolved, thanks to the way the European Court of Human Rights has interpreted it – its so-called case-law – and to various protocols that have established new rights relating to circumstances that could not have been anticipated when it was first adopted.

One part of this gradual evolving body of law has been the abolishment of the death penalty, described on the thematic web page The Council of Europe is a death penalty free area, with links to legal and political documents (including the Fact Sheet with main points).



The European Day against the death penalty is held annually; the next one on 10 October 2010.



EU Charter

Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union echoes the ban on the death penalty (as published in the consolidated version OJEU 30.3.2010 C 83/392):

Article 2
Right to life

1. Everyone has the right to life.

2. No one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed.

The EU Charter builds on the ECHR as well as other human rights documents, making it the most modern and comprehensive “bill of rights” in Europe with regard to its contents. The Charter applies to the European Union, but to the member states only when they implement EU law.



Among the EU members, only the United Kingdom and Poland break ranks by opt-outs from the EU Charter.




Addition 26 August 2010: I forgot to mention that there is political agreement with the Czech Republic that it will opt out of the EU Charter, but legally this will be piggy-backed on the next accession treaty.




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.

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.

Online campaign challenges in Europe: Inertia and hostility

Online media, or social media, potentially cross national and linguistic borders, but both attitudes and languages present formidable challenges for Europe-wide campaigns.

Here we take a look at attitudes.



In a blog post on Europaportalen, the Swedish researcher Jakob Larsson, who works in the Institute for Futures Studies (Institutet för framtidsstudier), yesterday wondered at how sluggish media attention given to EU issues is during the run-up to the parliament election on 19 September 2010, despite their obvious importance.

Sweden is not unique. In practically all member states of the European Union political parties and media deal with political and policy issues in a national framework. This reflects voter perceptions, but it also fails to educate the public.

During the Enlightenment, some philosophers managed to propagate new ideas beyond national borders, although most people continued to toil in local communities unaware of the paradigm shift taking place.

Despite great technological advances, Europe remains almost in the same situation. European affairs are still the domain of a minority of well-informed and alert people, who understand the interdependence and interaction between politics and issues at EU level and national level. Attitudes are passive and they change slowly.



Then there are the flat-earthers who actively keep digging deeper trenches, exemplified by EUReferendum. The Battle of Britain drones on, now into its 45th day. This could be an understandable mix of history and nostalgia, were it not based on unadulterated hostility towards everything which binds Europeans together:

Fifty years of European political integration is not uniting us – it is dividing us, turning us back into enemies.

As Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Spaniards and the rest, they are our friends and allies, and deserve our respect. As "Europeans", they are Frogs, Huns, Ities, Dagos and the rest. They become our enemies and rivals. They get our enmity.

The "colleagues" need to wake up to this before it is too late. Leave us be, without trespassing on the "nooks and crannies" of our daily life and we are friends. Interfere and threaten us, and we are enemies. And they really don't want that. Look what happened last time.

A political online campaign for Europe has to contend with two attitude challenges: inertia and prejudice (even hatred).



The Campaign for a PES Primary is an example of an EU-wide political campaign, where party activists have to overcome both tardiness and hostility in order to gain wide enough support.



The Facebook campaign page has now gathered 921 members, and the grass root campaigners hope to reach 1,000 supporters by the end of August.

Not a bad start for a pioneering effort, but what (else) can civil society actors learn from the campaign?




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.

Myths and ideas about Europe: Books in Italian

Eurogoblin’s short essay and long blog post The Christian Origins of European Unity got a warm reception from a few prominent young Eurobloggers. This inspired me to think about some of the books and booklets, which have given me pleasure through the years.

To refresh my memory, and with pleasure more than scientific merit in mind, I decided to look at my bookshelf in order to present some books I have found interesting with regard to the myths, ideas and history of European integration.

Many may be out of print, but available in libraries; others may have been published in new editions. However, here is a first instalment of old friends, this time mainly in Italian, which have given me both pleasure and knowledge.

Gerlando Lentini wrote a fairly romantic booklet with almost the same theme as Eurogoblin, the Christian roots of the European Union: Alle radici cristiane dell’Unione Europea – Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide De Gasperi (Città Nuova Editrice, 2004).



Also a slim volume, also in Italian, is Federico Chabod: Storia dell’idea d’Europa (originally 1961, but the volume I have Editori Laterza, 2001). Chabod’s lectures take us from the earliest myths about Europe to 18th century ideas. Internet Bookshop Italia seems to have an 8th edition from 2007.



The historian Heikki Mikkeli wrote Euroopan idea in Finnish (1994; 3rd edition, Suomen Historiallinen Seura, 1999). A reedited Italian version has been published: Europa – Storia di un’idea e di un’identità (il Mulino, 2002), translated from an English edition I do not possess: Europe as an Idea and an Identity (Palgrave, 1998). Mikkeli discusses Europe as an idea from early myths to the threshold of the establishment of the European Union. He traces European identity in relation to geographic and cultural borders.



Europa unita sogno dei saggi, by Maria Grazia Melchionni (Marsilio Editori, 2001) leads the reader from prehistoric times to the establishment of the Council of Europe and the first European Communities.



Sergio Romano gives a broad outline of the geography and culture of Europe, the history of the European states and of European integration until the plan for a Constitution in 2003, in: Europa – Storia di un’idea (Longanesi, 2004; a 2006 edition seems to be available).

These books invite us to think about our European cultural heritage and the ideas to overcome deep divisions created by humans.

Some people call the thinkers of European unity utopians.

What should the call the ones who destroyed or still want to disrupt those dreams?

Something to think about at the memorials dedicated to the known and unknown victims of internecine European wars.




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.

Daniel Hannan’s quaint love of Europe

Languages other than English may be better suited, if you want to gain a deeper understanding of European integration, I argued yesterday.

Daniel Hannan MEP, while professing a love for Europe, misses few opportunities to punish a good word about the European Union, or even a suggestion for greater interest in European affairs generally.



At least Hannan rushed to diminish the Guardian article by Martin Kettle about being trapped by the Anglosphere, I mentioned in the aftermath of the Eurogoblin blog post on the roots of European integration.



In 2009 the current account of the United Kingdom with regard to the European Union was GBP 277 billion and with New Zealand GBP 1.35 billion, but Hannan seems to imply that his constituents are better served if they stay in their comfort zone, the Anglosphere:

The Internet makes it as easy for my constituents to do business with a company in New Zealand as with a company in Belgium. Easier, indeed, because the Kiwi company shares our common law, accountancy practices, commercial traditions and language.

Hannan prefers to look for “folk of our blood and speech” in the Antipodes, as long as he can bypass Europe.



If Hannan had used German, he might as well have said “Blut und Boden”.

The Internet will finally turn the United Kingdom away from Europe. This will democratise something Hannan leaves unmentioned.

Hannan has produced another quaint declaration of love for Europe.




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.

After Eurogoblin: Why is English not the lingua franca of European integration?

The free movement of goods, persons, services and capital has been popular in England, at least when headed towards the European Continent, but the free flow of thoughts less so in the reverse direction, if threatening to enrich Britain.



Have you ever seen a pious goblin? Me neither, until Eurogoblin took the “Finding Europe’s Mojo” motto seriously and posted a short essay (but long blog post) called The Christian Roots of European Unity.



I join Vihar Georgiev (of European Union Law) in his wish that many people will take the time to read the post because it raises important questions and Eurocentric (of The European Citizen) in his assessment: Brilliant post!

For now, I am going to make some remarks on languages and culture(s) in relationship to European integration.




Languages and culture(s)


English has become a lingua franca for commerce, as well as the second language for university and college students all over Europe. There are also great publishers, such as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press and Palgrave Macmillan, with titles on the history, politics and law of European integration.




However, generally EUSSR myths, disinformation and constant sowing of discord seem to be much more in demand in the United Kingdom than interest in languages and cultures next door. The culture just is not there.

Beyond their mother tongue, many European students are limited to the offer in English, so their world view is formed by what they can access.



The roots and motives of European integration remain almost invisible, if left to British media (mainstream and social), politicians and expressions from an uninformed public.



The British are constantly hammered with myths that the UK was taken into the “Common Market”, without giving the people a choice, and that the EEC has surreptitiously turned into a European Union super-state. First of all, membership in the three European Communities was approved in a referendum in 1975. Secondly, every Treaty since the Treaty of Rome has visibly highlighted the quest for “ever closer union”. With slightly different wording, the idea of a future common destiny was laid out in the 1951 Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. The Schuman declaration (1950) described the ECSC as “a first step in the federation of Europe”. Thirdly, in the international arena the European Union is almost as weak as Poland under the 'liberum veto', and almost as impossible to reform (multiple unanimity rules).



The “integration by stealth" myth is bollocks, despite daily disinformation. Actually, Britain joined a project of ever deeper integration, but has been in constant breach of the spirit of its commitment. Sir Humphrey’s parody of UK foreign policy in Yes, Minister (on YouTube) contains more than a grain of truth.



Martin Kettle describes the consequences for the UK of this linguistic and cultural “blindness” in The Guardian: Trapped in the Anglosphere, we’ve lost sight of next door.

In addition, one could remark, this tunnel vision affects increasing numbers of young Europeans for whom English is their only foreign language.



These are some of the reasons why the Council of Europe’s annual European Day of Languages on 26 September is important.



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.

The culture of European integration has often been nurtured with more thought and understanding in other European languages. Especially in the United Kingdom and the other later entrants among the EU member states (including my own, Finland), there is a need to look for sources beyond the confines of England and English.

Why not put free movement of thought on your agenda?




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.

This sceptred isle or Sallust? The British are Europeans – but unaware for how long?

In an earlier post we discussed the absence of a (modern) codified Constitution and the notion of citizenship (instead, subjects of the Crown) in the United Kingdom. Many of the sources, features and procedures of the British constitutional and political system are antiquated. Who in his right mind would today resist a codified Constitution, institute a Monarchy or establish a House of Lords?



The Parliament in Westminster (House of Commons) was an important model internationally, but the first-past-the-post system does not lead to fair representation. The domestic climate in the UK regarding modern fundamental rights has been hesitant, when not outright hostile, as is current public opinion on the European Union.

Legally protected fundamental rights for citizens (or everyone within the jurisdiction) against encroachment by government are cornerstones of modern liberal political entities.



All EU member states are parties to the mother of human rights in Europe, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; CETS No. 005 including amending protocols), which the European Union itself has pledged to accede to.



The EU also houses the next generation daughter, the more comprehensive and modern Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, legally binding since the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009.



Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic have blotted their reputations by distancing themselves from the community of values formed around the EU Charter, but the Charter will still bind the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the European Union (Article 51), offering legal protection to all citizens of the EU, including the people of the laggard nations.



Looking at present and future European relations through the prism of the Battle of Britain, totally negating that Britain and the British have representation in the European Union, painting eurozone bank stress tests as pure self-deception, rejoicing at a member state (Hungary) telling the EU and the IMF to “bugger off” [until it needs massive refinancing next year], transport of joy on ConservativeHome at the absence of the EU flag when president Nicolas Sarkozy visited London (via Jason O’Mahony), a proposal to repeal the Act on Britain’s [reduced] share in financing the European Union (via Euromove) are but brief glimpses of constant sowing of discord and disinformation, intended to get the United Kingdom out of the EU or from engaging constructively even “with” (instead of in) Europe.



Much of English discourse on European integration shares the Taliban feeling that they have nothing to gain and nothing to learn from (the rest of) the civilised world. However, are these feelings of superiority well founded, when we look at the constitutional and political system, or the relationship to citizenship and fundamental rights?



Is Shakespeare’s beautiful poetry, “this sceptred isle, ... This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England” (written in approximately 1595), really a healthy philosophical foundation for the fundamental rights, or the future security and prosperity of UK subjects and EU citizens in a globalising world?



For as long as it takes for British EU citizens as a whole to become willing and able to create a constructive and mutually learning relationship in the European Union, at least the rest of the 501 million inhabitants of the EU have cause to reflect on Sallust’s wise words in the Jugurthine War about the effects of discord on political constructs:

Nam concordia parvae res crescunt, discordia maxumae dilabuntur.

The British are Europeans; they are in Europe. When is awareness going to set in? Is Sallust going to age another two millennia before it happens?




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 pertinent 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.



The European Commission in the UK arranges a Day of Multilingual Blogging on 26 September 2010, joined by the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu and individual Eurobloggers. Spread the word and start preparing for the event.

Activists challenge Party of European Socialists (PES): Spent force or renewable resource?

Even if the Campaign for a PES Primary is directed at socialist, social democratic and labour party activists right now, the call for action by Desmond O’Toole and José Reis Santos challenges the leadership of the Party of European Socialists (PES) - in French Parti Socialiste européen (PSE) – and especially the leaders of the national parties.



On the campaign blog Neil Warner of Irish Labour Youth argues that the Campaign for a PES Primary is an absolute necessity; for Europe, democracy and progressive politics.

This is hardly an exaggeration with regard to the future of the PES-PSE. The reformist left parties have been beaten in most parliamentary elections in the member states of the European Union.



Paralysis or renewal?


In the 2009 elections to the European Parliament a paralysed PES failed to field a candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission, and the socialists predictably fell far behind the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP).



The Wikipedia article on the Party of European Socialists was last modified on 16 August 2010, but even this entry seems to share the melancholy feeling by presenting outdated information about the PES in the European institutions (as of 2007).

Is the PES a spent force or a renewable resource in the political landscape of Europe?

The Campaign for a PES Primary is the most concrete and imaginative initiative for the Party of European Socialists to reconnect with activists and engage EU citizens ahead of the EP elections in 2014.



Growing Facebook group


Last Friday morning the Facebook campaign page had gathered 590 supporters, and the following morning, Saturday 14 August 2010, they were 650.



In less than four days the number of campaign group members on Facebook has grown by 118 (to 768), so the initiative is making headway and for once the PES activists are seen to be on the offensive in a positive sense.



Euroblogs supportive


In addition to Jon Worth, The European Citizen and Grahnlaw (here and here), new Euroblogs have taken up the PES campaign in a positive light.



Joël Cordier had already published the campaign call in French on his blog, but Jean-Sébastien Lefebvre on the Europa451.fr blog seems to be the first to analyse the proposal in French: Primaires européennes, le réveil des leaders socialistes pour 2014 ?



Peter Sain ley Berry’s View from the Outfield (EUobserver blog) calls the PES campaign An Encouraging Proposal.



Other Europarties?



The campaign challenges the leadership of the PES and the national socialist parties, but it has also left the activists of the other Europarties (political parties at European level) in the starting blocks: the European People’s Party (EPP), the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) and the European Green Party.

Are they going to stay crouched until the race is over?




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 pertinent 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.


The European Commission in the UK arranges a Day of Multilingual Blogging on 26 September 2010, joined by the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu and individual Eurobloggers. Please, spread the word and start preparing for the event.

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.

UK versus USA and EU: Oceans apart on fundamental rights

After yesterday’s blog posts on a new pocket-sized version of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and basic information about the Council of Europe and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, it is time to turn to the odd man out among civilised nations: the United Kingdom.



In the Declaration of Independence (1776), by the Second Continental Congress, the thirteen united States of America turned the tables on King George III:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ─ That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, ...

Principles of the English Bill of Rights (1689) and Enlightenment philosophy also flowed into the Constitution of the United States of America (1787), including the first ten amendments known as the United States Bill of Rights, which came into effect in 1791.



In the United Kingdom, absent the notion of citizenship and a codified constitution, subjects of the Crown enjoy certain rights based on a patchwork of domestic statutory provisions and common law rules.



The set of laws and principles under which the United Kingdom is governed form the uncodified constitution. According to the fundamental doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament can change any law including the constitutional rules by a simple Act of Parliament, so domestically the rights of a British subject hang by a thread, subject to the whims of each Parliament in Westminster.



English nationalists seem to worship a ragtag bag of domestic documents from Magna Carta onwards with fervour, as if these parchments and papers somehow conferred superior protection for Englishmen compared to the human rights enshrined in other EU countries or the United States. Have these fervent Crown subjects even read the Magna Carta?



The Magna Carta is a historically important document, but so is the Code of Hammurabi.



The Conservative election manifesto 2010 still saw superior human rights and fundamental freedoms as an encroachment [on Parliamentary sovereignty] and pledged to replace the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights (page 79).



Intellectually and politically an unqualified statement like that would have placed the United Kingdom on par with Belarus with regard to European human rights standards.



The latest general election led to a coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, so the UK Coalition programme 2010 shows restraining influences on the government’s urge to gain the upper hand against judges and the people (page 11):

We will establish a Commission to investigate the creation of a British Bill of Rights that incorporates and builds on all our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, ensures that these rights continue to be enshrined in British law, and protects and extends British liberties. We will seek to promote a better understanding of the true scope of these obligations and liberties.

Thanks to the Liberal Democrats, rights under the ECHR will be given continued protection, and there is even talk of potentially extending the rights of British subjects.

It is still amazing: Where in the civilised world of today can you, as the Conservatives, emerge as the biggest party in free and fair elections on a promise to curtail human rights?


Without UK membership in the European Union (indirectly benefiting from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights despite opting out) and the Council of Europe, with the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) finally brought into force in 2000 by the UK Human Rights Act 1998, individuals in Britain would have few guarantees against excesses by government or parliament.

The media climate and the political atmosphere in the United Kingdom are still oceans apart from the fundamental rights traditions protecting citizens across the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel.



I wonder why.




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.

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.