“Legyen béke, szabadság és egyetértés“, ezt kíván az egész Europa is.
Kivánjuk a’ sajtó szabadságát, censura eltörlését.
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Category Archives: English
German intellectuals are critising the EU for lacking leadership
German intellectuals like Habermas, Enzensberger, and former leaders like Herzog and Boltkestein (though Dutch *g*) have been criticising the European Union’s leadership and the influence of lobbyists and centralistic bureaucrats in the institutions throughout this year.
Now former chancellor Helmut Schmidt joined the choir. In a recent TV documentary about former German finance minister Per Steinbrück and the finance crisis he takes on the leadership and the recent EU enlargement. He is being quoted by euractiv:
There is no leader at the moment. It is a worse situation than we have ever experienced in the 60 years of European integration. [...]
In the Maastricht conference, we were twelve member states. We’ve then become 15 and then 20 and 26 and 27. This is all nonsense. [...]
It was right to give them psychological support. For that a NATO membership would have been sufficient, it would have satisfied even the Americans. But to have them join the European Union, without us having adjusted the rules of that giant club accordingly, that was a catastrophic mistake.
(euractiv.de/own translation, 02 August 2010)
I support the people that care about the future of Europe as a common project. They raise their voice to stimulate a debate and they’re being heard by an intellectual elite, sometimes even politics. Many of these accusations are far too comprehensible. I share much of their criticism. But I cannot take these grumpy old white men serious any longer. Sure, they’ve been there, they’ve done it all. I mean, they basically created the European Union and all that goes with it. But as long as I have the image of Statler and Waldorf in my head, every time they bring up new critique and bash current politics without being anything close to constructive I’m not willing to accept it, even if I share their opinions. (Imagine they blogged. I’m not sure they would comments.)
Update (August 3, 2010):
While I was writing this post Jon Worth thought about Schmidt, too, and why he’s right.
The Commission’s green paper on open internet and net neutrality
I just wanted to answer the first few questions on the European Commission’s most recent green paper “on the open internet and net neutrality”. As part of the Neelie Kroes’ Digital Agenda this a crucial issue that more and more people around Europe become aware of. If you’re unfamiliar with why net neutrality matters I recommend watching Jérémie Zimmermann’s introduction at last year’s Chaos Communication Congress (26c3) or reading the dossier and information provided at La Quadrature du Net.
I welcome the European Commission reaching out to the many experts and interested to collect their views on the matter. It does so usually by opening a public consultation process in the form of a green paper allowing everyone to comment on the Commission thoughts and answer some of the questions that the Commission itself will have to answer in a later process, ideally with a concrete proposal. If the Commission really cares about citizens’ involvement it even provides serveral translations of that paper. Not so much recently, unfortunately.
Neelie Kroes: “Open source is not a dirty word anymore”
I’m glad to hear that in this video message to the participants of the GNOME Users’ And Developers’ European Conference (GUADEC) at the end of the month in The Hague the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda and Vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes is reiterating her advocacy for open source software. She reflects on the growing acceptance of open source and emphasises the importance of communities in shaping the digital future.
“In her statement Kroes cites several EU-supported public FLOSS tools, including: the Open Software Observatory and Repository (OSOR) database, a platform to develop, collaborate and share software and best practices between public administrations; the European Union Public License (EUPL), a “copy left”-style software license; and the European Interoperability Framework, a policy instrument that aims at interoperability in and between public administrations.”
(from today’s GUADEC announcement)
via @telecomix
Better Know A Euroblog [updated]
There has been quite the jumble after the presentation of the Brussels Blogger Study 2010 with which public affairs firm Waggener Edstrom wanted to show the most influential euroblogs. I don’t wish to comment on the poor methodology and research of the study here. Jon, Eurogoblin, Mathew and others already have in detail. One thing the company achieved though is to wake some blogs and stimulate a debate. It’s yet again a self-referential one. But after the death of Charlemagne’s Notebook and Julien Frisch it’s a discussion again that triggers bloggers to show that there’s more than the selected blogs and others that might drive a pan-European debate even further in their blogs.
People blog for a variety of reasons and they use different approaches. But how good is a blog if only few know about it? The best address to obtain new comments about European affairs is still bloggingportal.eu and their (must say our) weekly round-up. That’s the place to go for the real deal, the debate and what’s really going on in the euroblogosphere. The portal aggregates over 600 blogs, yet you don’t learn about who’s behind that blog. I find it very difficult to learn new blogs and often I only stumble upon a new one.
That’s why I’m now finally introducing what I wanted to do for some time, have a #followfriday for euroblogs. I’m calling it “better know a euroblog” and you will be able to follow my personal recommendations here.
Of course you’re more than welcome to tell me about other blogs that I might be missing and be sure to also submit them to bloggingportal. ;)
Update (19 July 2010): To avoid any further confusion, I didn’t mean to invent a new twitter hashtag. I wanted to promote the idea behind it. Taking the time to blog on why you read a specific euroblog. In a real blog post, not only on twitter. Something I’ve done before and would simply love to see elsewhere. Grahnlaw gave an example today and published a #bkaeb, too.