EU Community will launch the beta version of its first, free service EurActory on 29 January at the European Parliament. But first, we explain the idea one ‘frequently asked question’ at a time. FAQ4 – What will EurActory look like in the future? Next week, we release the ‘beta version’ of EurActory: a first… » read more
Archives for future EU
New tool for EU experts – EurActory: Why am I not in there?
January 21, 2015
EU Community will launch the beta version of its first, free service EurActory on 29 January at the European Parliament. But first, we explain the idea one ‘frequently asked question’ at a time. FAQ3 – Why am I not in there? EurActory currently has over 10,000 experts on EU policy. These are mostly sourced from… » read more
New tool for EU experts – Who has a profile on EurActory?
January 20, 2015
EU Community will launch the beta version of its first, free service EurActory on 29 January at the European Parliament. But first, we explain the idea one ‘frequently asked question’ at a time. FAQ2 – Who has a profile on EurActory? You can find anyone working in the EU institutions on EurActory, as well as… » read more
With Greek election only a few days away, I am reminded of a friend’s prediction that this time even loyal voters may vote for a different party that they used to. After having to leave Athens because of the crisis, he is struggling to keep his doctors practice afloat on the small island of Aegina.… » read more
English, EU Priorities 2020, Euro & Finance, future EU, Media Freedom |
A herbicide spray to keep the bio-tech industry at bay? RIP traditional European agriculture
January 15, 2015
By Kathleen Garnett Ever since the first boff in a lab profited from fiddling around with the genetic make-up of plants European agriculture has been at the mercy of the big corporations. Not unlike the pests GMO products are said to repel the bio-tech industry has been swarming all over the treasure chest that is… » read more
Agriculture & Food, English, future EU, Health & Consumers, Science & Policymaking |
Parliament’s High Level Group on Own Resources
January 9, 2015
On Thursday 8 January a European Parliament Conference of Presidents took place. It was chaired by the EU High Level Group on Own Resources lead by Mario Monti. The report on EU’s Own Resources that was published last month was presented under the idea of reforming the EU funding system. AEGEE / European Students’ Forum… » read more
The EU in deep trouble with its top court
January 7, 2015
Something rather shocking has happened. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has just confounded its friends as well as its foes by blocking the EU’s efforts to sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In Opinion 2/13 delivered on 18 December, the Court ruled that the draft accession agreement between the European… » read more
Reaction to Leonard Besselink’s ACELG Blog
January 6, 2015
Thanks to Leonard Besselink for giving a fast, sensible and innovative approach to get the Union out of the quagmire created by the Court’s Opinion 2/13. He proposes an amending Protocol to the TEU, which will basically amend Article 6(2) of that Treaty by announcing that this accession will happen “notwithstanding” the Opinion of the… » read more
Acceding to the ECHR notwithstanding the Court of Justice Opinion
December 30, 2014
The Court’s Opinion may have shattered expectations. Who had thought that the revised accession agreement that was renegotiated by the EU and its Member States with the State Parties to the ECHR, after an initial rejection in the Council by the UK and France, would be dodged by the Court? After all, on all the… » read more
History suggests that it may even be easier to create an identity for others than to find one for oneself. The ‘Us and Them’ syndrome, where the ‘Them’ are dumped together in a separate communal basket, makes the process a bit easier… The Greeks called all foreigners barbaros because they couldn’t decipher their babbling. The… » read more
2015—Can We Make It Different?
December 18, 2014
The beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect on where we are compared to where we want to be. A few days ago I came across a post by British MEP, Richard Corbett. He wrote about how the pragmatism of the EU is important for solving problems, but “when we focus… » read more
English, EU Priorities 2020, future EU, Global Europe, Sustainable Dev. |
A general regulation of administrative procedure for the European Union?
December 16, 2014
Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon the passionate desire of the European Ombudsman and European Parliament is to create a regulation for administrative procedures for all European institutions. Unfortunately the legal basis for such a proposal is far from solid. By Pieter van der Ploeg Currently, rules on administrative procedures for… » read more
Is ‘digital native’ government possible?
December 15, 2014
An interview with Jim Bankoff, who just raised another raised $46.5 million in funding for Vox Media (“the fastest growing Web brand of 2014″), caught my eye: “Vox.com’s main draw [is] making sense of complicated issues in ways that are easily digestible for online readers… Our content platform is less about the 1s and 0s… » read more
By Richard Corbett MEP Europe has come a long way since the 1950s. Ideals are important, but our world has changed, and political reality has a habit of bringing them back down to earth with a bump.
Innovation Summit: better policy-making, beyond R&D programmes
November 26, 2014
The Innovation Summit hosted by the European Parliament on 17-20 November reviewed policies under the headline ‘a mandate for innovation’. The MEP-led organiser, K4I (Knowledge for Innovation), gathered 4 Commissioner, including for example the one for research , many MEPs including several committee chairs, and a large number of corporate and association representatives. Below are… » read more
English, future EU, Innovation & Enterprise, Sustainable Dev. |
Knowledge for Innovation, an MEP-led association, organized its 6th Innovation Summit this week, in partnership with several organisations including EurActiv, which covered several sessions, and moderated the conclusions (separate post). The timing was good: just after the start of the Jucker Commission and before Mr Tusk arrives: which I addressed in an Opinion piece. Having… » read more
What tech can do for policy
November 23, 2014
On Wednesday (19 November), EU Community joined a meetup at the European Comission which gathered different projects working within the ‘Global Systems Science’ cluster. To make a long explanation short: these are projects looking into using ICT tools and computation to figure out what is happening in policy making. They build tools to calculate the… » read more
Join Us at the One Europe Convention in Verona
November 18, 2014
In my first post here on BlogActiv, I am very pleased to welcome you to our annual One Europe Convention with attendants from 70 countries. The convention will take place in Verona on November 21-23, 2014. For 10 years running, the annual European convention, hosted by Kabbalah.info, a non-profit organization, has established itself as one of… » read more
25 years later
November 11, 2014
The photo of Chancellor Helmut Kohl in front of the Brandenburg Gate is incredible. But how will it be viewed in 25 more years? Chancellor Helmut Kohl in front of the Brandenburg Gate, 25 years after the launch a process that led to the reunification of much more than Germany (@bild). Of course it’s supposed… » read more
EU Community: What is coming up?
November 5, 2014
Making EU policy more efficient. That is the goal with which EU Community was launched, about one year ago. The project is built on the understanding that EU policy making is changing. More and more people engage with EU decision makers. More and more information is available. This should help us better understand the EU’s… » read more