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The EU Commission, in a radical move towards transparency, has decided to publish one Commission meeting protocol from 1958 on its website. Rumours that one document from 1959 will be published next year cannot be confirmed so far. PS.: A proper Commission document register can be expected for 2015 the earliest if I’m informed correctly.
On 23 November 2011, the EU Commission published its plans for “ERASMUS for All“. And what was the most important thing for Commissioner Lewandowski – and the only substantive point of discussion at the level of EU Commissioners on 23 November – regarding this proposal? To change the name of the “Marie Curie Program actions” […]
The EU Court in spring requested to be reformed (financial implications) as quick as possible, including the creation of the office of a Vice President of the Court, the enlargement of the Court and the change of certain procedures (see link above for details), in order to be able to deal with the current demands […]
After having telephoned with the official responsible at the EU Ombudsman for my complaint against the EU Commission, today I have received the following confirmation from the Ombudsman’s office: “Dear Mr Patz, On 9 November 2011, you submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman against the Commission concerning its handling of your request for access […]
By accident, I’ve come across a very fascinating academic journal article on EU-Africa relations and the role China played in this relationship in the first decade of the 21st century. “The European Union and China’s rise in Africa: Competing visions, external coherence and trilateral cooperation” by Maurizio Carbone, published in April of 2011 in a […]
Last week, the EU Parliament Civil Liberties committee – with the exception of the EPP group – voted in favour of a draft report which in essence supports more access to EU documents (see my blog post). Here is how the EU Council sees the report: “This draft report substantially restricts the possibility to refuse […]
Using social media can be so simple for EU institutions and those working in these institutions if they understand that all that is needed is to listen and to (inter)act. An example: Today, a patent law blogger complained about dysfunctional parts of the relaunched EU Parliament website. With a tweet, I shared this complaint with […]
You may have read that I’ve started a complaint against the EU Commission to the EU Ombudsman. Today I’ve received a letter from the Commission telling me that they are unable to stay within the legal time limits even with the documents requested in September, i.e. the documents to which my initial request from 5 […]
How does the EU do politics? You can best see it in a speech that Maritime Affairs Commissioner Damanaki held to today in Lisbon. The speech starts with a big announcement: “… the Atlantic plays a critical role in Europe’s history and identity. It is of vital importance for EU trade and contains tremendous potentials for […]
There is the tendency by those who follow EU social media to focus on the social media aspects of all this. There is the risk to lose sight that quite some substance is dealt with in EU-focused or EU-covering blogs. Just some examples of very specialised blogs, eg.: on the Common Agricultural Policy, on the […]
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