The European Parliament has about 370,000 fans on Facebook. Hugh’ Fish Fight campaign has 238,000. The English language Twitter account of the European Parliament has 10,250 followers. Herman van Rompuy has 51,000. Hugh’s Fish fight has almost 30,000. The main campaign video of the campaign has been seen almost 300,000 times since the end of […]
My post on “The unlinked EU blogosphere” that I wrote as a complement to my post “On the state of EU blogging” has seen some follow-up in the last 9 days, so let’s take stock. First, the new Bruegel blog used the occasion to proclaim that Europeans can’t blog. To make their point a little […]
“We have no editorial ‘line’ except a commitment to communicating social science research and commentary in ways that enhance public debate and understanding.” (About, LSE EUROPP blog) Yesterday, a blog post of mine was published on the LSE EUROPP blog. I had proposed the title “On the State of EU Blogging” – a bit bold […]
According to a new Council document, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union will be restructured as of 1 April 2012 – this is about 9 months after Uwo Corsepius took over the office of Secretary General from Pierre de Boissieu. The current list of Directorates General of the Council Secretariat, according […]
Soon, a blog post of mine titled “On The State of EU Blogging” [link updated] will be published on the new LSE EUROPP blog. One of the claims I make there – without actually proving it – is that EU blogs “mostly coexist without too much interaction (in the form of links and comments)“. I […]
The following are quotes from the Commission meeting minutes of 22 February 2012 from their debate about ACTA: “[Reding] concluded by highlighting the rising influence of social networks on the Internet and the need for the Commission to take account of this in its communication policy and in dealing with various dossiers. Instructions had already been given to the […]
Today, EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton has issued two statements, one on the conflict in Sudan and one on the International Women’s Day, the latter with a focus on the Middle East/North Africa. The statements issued on Sudan is introduced with: “The Spokesperson of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security […]
It’s been more than two years now that the Treaty of Lisbon is the constitutional foundation of the work of the European Union. Yet, there are still turf wars between the EU institutions on how the powers laid out in the Treaties are to be implemented. An example comes from the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP): […]
In the debate on latest economic developments – focussing on Greece – during the Commission meeting on 14 February, the following point was raised (among others): “the problem posed by the discrepancy between the huge sacrifices asked of the great majority of the Greek people and the fact that senior executive pay remained untouched, making the efforts […]
I recently had the opportunity to talk with an official (director level) working in a financial administration of one of Germany’s federal states who shared an interesting observation: Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty with its subsidiarity protocol and also following the new internal participation rights of German parliaments introduced after the famous […]